\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n
\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
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Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
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As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n
\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
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WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 9 of 12 1 8 9 10 12
\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n
\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n
\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n
\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

However, when you look at the newer systems being developed \u2013 Agile and DevOps are becoming the way of life. In this approach, signing a contract with the price fixed is not practical. So increase in the overall program costs \u2013 whether attributable to the customers never ending change or the vendor actively abetting changes to \u201cdrive more revenue\u201d can become very debatable. So contracting in these cases is going to become more challenging, unless there\u2019s a very high level of trust between the customer and the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

With all the automation going on in the \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, the work is coming down rapidly. Yes, the margins are going up. This will still be an opportunity for the Indian IT outsourcing service providers, albeit a smaller business than earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when you look at the newer systems being developed \u2013 Agile and DevOps are becoming the way of life. In this approach, signing a contract with the price fixed is not practical. So increase in the overall program costs \u2013 whether attributable to the customers never ending change or the vendor actively abetting changes to \u201cdrive more revenue\u201d can become very debatable. So contracting in these cases is going to become more challenging, unless there\u2019s a very high level of trust between the customer and the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

The opportunity for the contract was large \u2013 with the work that was needed to \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d. Additionally the traditional way of delivering \u2013 meant the scoping was done up front, so it was possible to price with a certain element of risk factored in. We saw the likes of TPI and others advice the customers on how to structure the contracts and SLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all the automation going on in the \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, the work is coming down rapidly. Yes, the margins are going up. This will still be an opportunity for the Indian IT outsourcing service providers, albeit a smaller business than earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when you look at the newer systems being developed \u2013 Agile and DevOps are becoming the way of life. In this approach, signing a contract with the price fixed is not practical. So increase in the overall program costs \u2013 whether attributable to the customers never ending change or the vendor actively abetting changes to \u201cdrive more revenue\u201d can become very debatable. So contracting in these cases is going to become more challenging, unless there\u2019s a very high level of trust between the customer and the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

What\u2019s happening to contracts?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The opportunity for the contract was large \u2013 with the work that was needed to \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d. Additionally the traditional way of delivering \u2013 meant the scoping was done up front, so it was possible to price with a certain element of risk factored in. We saw the likes of TPI and others advice the customers on how to structure the contracts and SLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all the automation going on in the \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, the work is coming down rapidly. Yes, the margins are going up. This will still be an opportunity for the Indian IT outsourcing service providers, albeit a smaller business than earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when you look at the newer systems being developed \u2013 Agile and DevOps are becoming the way of life. In this approach, signing a contract with the price fixed is not practical. So increase in the overall program costs \u2013 whether attributable to the customers never ending change or the vendor actively abetting changes to \u201cdrive more revenue\u201d can become very debatable. So contracting in these cases is going to become more challenging, unless there\u2019s a very high level of trust between the customer and the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

However this opportunity will always exist for service providers. Whether it stays with the IT service providers or gets more actively filled through the manpower agencies, will be difficult to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s happening to contracts?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The opportunity for the contract was large \u2013 with the work that was needed to \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d. Additionally the traditional way of delivering \u2013 meant the scoping was done up front, so it was possible to price with a certain element of risk factored in. We saw the likes of TPI and others advice the customers on how to structure the contracts and SLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all the automation going on in the \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, the work is coming down rapidly. Yes, the margins are going up. This will still be an opportunity for the Indian IT outsourcing service providers, albeit a smaller business than earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when you look at the newer systems being developed \u2013 Agile and DevOps are becoming the way of life. In this approach, signing a contract with the price fixed is not practical. So increase in the overall program costs \u2013 whether attributable to the customers never ending change or the vendor actively abetting changes to \u201cdrive more revenue\u201d can become very debatable. So contracting in these cases is going to become more challenging, unless there\u2019s a very high level of trust between the customer and the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Otherwise, this would turn back into the \u201cold body shopping\u201d business. Clearly the margins will be low in this business and the uncertainty of the opportunity would not make it attractive to the IT service providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However this opportunity will always exist for service providers. Whether it stays with the IT service providers or gets more actively filled through the manpower agencies, will be difficult to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s happening to contracts?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The opportunity for the contract was large \u2013 with the work that was needed to \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d. Additionally the traditional way of delivering \u2013 meant the scoping was done up front, so it was possible to price with a certain element of risk factored in. We saw the likes of TPI and others advice the customers on how to structure the contracts and SLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all the automation going on in the \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, the work is coming down rapidly. Yes, the margins are going up. This will still be an opportunity for the Indian IT outsourcing service providers, albeit a smaller business than earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when you look at the newer systems being developed \u2013 Agile and DevOps are becoming the way of life. In this approach, signing a contract with the price fixed is not practical. So increase in the overall program costs \u2013 whether attributable to the customers never ending change or the vendor actively abetting changes to \u201cdrive more revenue\u201d can become very debatable. So contracting in these cases is going to become more challenging, unless there\u2019s a very high level of trust between the customer and the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

This will always exist as an opportunity. But, most large service providers \u2013 agree to do this, only because they see this as part of the bigger outsourcing opportunity, or see this as an opportunity to penetrate and capture the larger pie down stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise, this would turn back into the \u201cold body shopping\u201d business. Clearly the margins will be low in this business and the uncertainty of the opportunity would not make it attractive to the IT service providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However this opportunity will always exist for service providers. Whether it stays with the IT service providers or gets more actively filled through the manpower agencies, will be difficult to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s happening to contracts?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The opportunity for the contract was large \u2013 with the work that was needed to \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d. Additionally the traditional way of delivering \u2013 meant the scoping was done up front, so it was possible to price with a certain element of risk factored in. We saw the likes of TPI and others advice the customers on how to structure the contracts and SLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all the automation going on in the \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, the work is coming down rapidly. Yes, the margins are going up. This will still be an opportunity for the Indian IT outsourcing service providers, albeit a smaller business than earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when you look at the newer systems being developed \u2013 Agile and DevOps are becoming the way of life. In this approach, signing a contract with the price fixed is not practical. So increase in the overall program costs \u2013 whether attributable to the customers never ending change or the vendor actively abetting changes to \u201cdrive more revenue\u201d can become very debatable. So contracting in these cases is going to become more challenging, unless there\u2019s a very high level of trust between the customer and the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Surges and spikes<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This will always exist as an opportunity. But, most large service providers \u2013 agree to do this, only because they see this as part of the bigger outsourcing opportunity, or see this as an opportunity to penetrate and capture the larger pie down stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise, this would turn back into the \u201cold body shopping\u201d business. Clearly the margins will be low in this business and the uncertainty of the opportunity would not make it attractive to the IT service providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However this opportunity will always exist for service providers. Whether it stays with the IT service providers or gets more actively filled through the manpower agencies, will be difficult to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s happening to contracts?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The opportunity for the contract was large \u2013 with the work that was needed to \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d. Additionally the traditional way of delivering \u2013 meant the scoping was done up front, so it was possible to price with a certain element of risk factored in. We saw the likes of TPI and others advice the customers on how to structure the contracts and SLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all the automation going on in the \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, the work is coming down rapidly. Yes, the margins are going up. This will still be an opportunity for the Indian IT outsourcing service providers, albeit a smaller business than earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when you look at the newer systems being developed \u2013 Agile and DevOps are becoming the way of life. In this approach, signing a contract with the price fixed is not practical. So increase in the overall program costs \u2013 whether attributable to the customers never ending change or the vendor actively abetting changes to \u201cdrive more revenue\u201d can become very debatable. So contracting in these cases is going to become more challenging, unless there\u2019s a very high level of trust between the customer and the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Now the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing that rapidly. The folks are starting to age longer at each level. So the opportunity is getting similar to the captive organizations. When captive organizations pay better (typically), and the opportunity for growth is getting similar \u2013 there\u2019s a case for employees to actively consider captive now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surges and spikes<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This will always exist as an opportunity. But, most large service providers \u2013 agree to do this, only because they see this as part of the bigger outsourcing opportunity, or see this as an opportunity to penetrate and capture the larger pie down stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise, this would turn back into the \u201cold body shopping\u201d business. Clearly the margins will be low in this business and the uncertainty of the opportunity would not make it attractive to the IT service providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However this opportunity will always exist for service providers. Whether it stays with the IT service providers or gets more actively filled through the manpower agencies, will be difficult to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s happening to contracts?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The opportunity for the contract was large \u2013 with the work that was needed to \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d. Additionally the traditional way of delivering \u2013 meant the scoping was done up front, so it was possible to price with a certain element of risk factored in. We saw the likes of TPI and others advice the customers on how to structure the contracts and SLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all the automation going on in the \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, the work is coming down rapidly. Yes, the margins are going up. This will still be an opportunity for the Indian IT outsourcing service providers, albeit a smaller business than earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when you look at the newer systems being developed \u2013 Agile and DevOps are becoming the way of life. In this approach, signing a contract with the price fixed is not practical. So increase in the overall program costs \u2013 whether attributable to the customers never ending change or the vendor actively abetting changes to \u201cdrive more revenue\u201d can become very debatable. So contracting in these cases is going to become more challenging, unless there\u2019s a very high level of trust between the customer and the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

So it\u2019s moving to an era, where people are getting the opportunity to work on a focussed area. They have the time to make a difference. The measure of the pyramid that you manage, is starting to lose out as the driver. Also the risk of the folks in the middle of the IT services organization pyramid is increasing, rapidly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing that rapidly. The folks are starting to age longer at each level. So the opportunity is getting similar to the captive organizations. When captive organizations pay better (typically), and the opportunity for growth is getting similar \u2013 there\u2019s a case for employees to actively consider captive now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surges and spikes<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This will always exist as an opportunity. But, most large service providers \u2013 agree to do this, only because they see this as part of the bigger outsourcing opportunity, or see this as an opportunity to penetrate and capture the larger pie down stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise, this would turn back into the \u201cold body shopping\u201d business. Clearly the margins will be low in this business and the uncertainty of the opportunity would not make it attractive to the IT service providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However this opportunity will always exist for service providers. Whether it stays with the IT service providers or gets more actively filled through the manpower agencies, will be difficult to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s happening to contracts?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The opportunity for the contract was large \u2013 with the work that was needed to \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d. Additionally the traditional way of delivering \u2013 meant the scoping was done up front, so it was possible to price with a certain element of risk factored in. We saw the likes of TPI and others advice the customers on how to structure the contracts and SLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all the automation going on in the \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, the work is coming down rapidly. Yes, the margins are going up. This will still be an opportunity for the Indian IT outsourcing service providers, albeit a smaller business than earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when you look at the newer systems being developed \u2013 Agile and DevOps are becoming the way of life. In this approach, signing a contract with the price fixed is not practical. So increase in the overall program costs \u2013 whether attributable to the customers never ending change or the vendor actively abetting changes to \u201cdrive more revenue\u201d can become very debatable. So contracting in these cases is going to become more challenging, unless there\u2019s a very high level of trust between the customer and the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

I guess that era is slowly fading away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it\u2019s moving to an era, where people are getting the opportunity to work on a focussed area. They have the time to make a difference. The measure of the pyramid that you manage, is starting to lose out as the driver. Also the risk of the folks in the middle of the IT services organization pyramid is increasing, rapidly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing that rapidly. The folks are starting to age longer at each level. So the opportunity is getting similar to the captive organizations. When captive organizations pay better (typically), and the opportunity for growth is getting similar \u2013 there\u2019s a case for employees to actively consider captive now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surges and spikes<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This will always exist as an opportunity. But, most large service providers \u2013 agree to do this, only because they see this as part of the bigger outsourcing opportunity, or see this as an opportunity to penetrate and capture the larger pie down stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise, this would turn back into the \u201cold body shopping\u201d business. Clearly the margins will be low in this business and the uncertainty of the opportunity would not make it attractive to the IT service providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However this opportunity will always exist for service providers. Whether it stays with the IT service providers or gets more actively filled through the manpower agencies, will be difficult to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s happening to contracts?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The opportunity for the contract was large \u2013 with the work that was needed to \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d. Additionally the traditional way of delivering \u2013 meant the scoping was done up front, so it was possible to price with a certain element of risk factored in. We saw the likes of TPI and others advice the customers on how to structure the contracts and SLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all the automation going on in the \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, the work is coming down rapidly. Yes, the margins are going up. This will still be an opportunity for the Indian IT outsourcing service providers, albeit a smaller business than earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when you look at the newer systems being developed \u2013 Agile and DevOps are becoming the way of life. In this approach, signing a contract with the price fixed is not practical. So increase in the overall program costs \u2013 whether attributable to the customers never ending change or the vendor actively abetting changes to \u201cdrive more revenue\u201d can become very debatable. So contracting in these cases is going to become more challenging, unless there\u2019s a very high level of trust between the customer and the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

So the IT service industry was able to absorb the huge growth, thanks to the large number of folks graduating from the colleges (even after all the issues with the quality of education, we still had a large enough population available). Because of the growth, the pyramid never changed it\u2019s composition. (We had the same ratio of the pyramid). At the same time, the growth was ensuring that the experienced folks were getting pitched into managing a team, then a project, a program, a customer\u2026 and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess that era is slowly fading away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it\u2019s moving to an era, where people are getting the opportunity to work on a focussed area. They have the time to make a difference. The measure of the pyramid that you manage, is starting to lose out as the driver. Also the risk of the folks in the middle of the IT services organization pyramid is increasing, rapidly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing that rapidly. The folks are starting to age longer at each level. So the opportunity is getting similar to the captive organizations. When captive organizations pay better (typically), and the opportunity for growth is getting similar \u2013 there\u2019s a case for employees to actively consider captive now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surges and spikes<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This will always exist as an opportunity. But, most large service providers \u2013 agree to do this, only because they see this as part of the bigger outsourcing opportunity, or see this as an opportunity to penetrate and capture the larger pie down stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise, this would turn back into the \u201cold body shopping\u201d business. Clearly the margins will be low in this business and the uncertainty of the opportunity would not make it attractive to the IT service providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However this opportunity will always exist for service providers. Whether it stays with the IT service providers or gets more actively filled through the manpower agencies, will be difficult to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s happening to contracts?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The opportunity for the contract was large \u2013 with the work that was needed to \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d. Additionally the traditional way of delivering \u2013 meant the scoping was done up front, so it was possible to price with a certain element of risk factored in. We saw the likes of TPI and others advice the customers on how to structure the contracts and SLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all the automation going on in the \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, the work is coming down rapidly. Yes, the margins are going up. This will still be an opportunity for the Indian IT outsourcing service providers, albeit a smaller business than earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when you look at the newer systems being developed \u2013 Agile and DevOps are becoming the way of life. In this approach, signing a contract with the price fixed is not practical. So increase in the overall program costs \u2013 whether attributable to the customers never ending change or the vendor actively abetting changes to \u201cdrive more revenue\u201d can become very debatable. So contracting in these cases is going to become more challenging, unless there\u2019s a very high level of trust between the customer and the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

So everyone with 2 years experience, became a senior pro. Then those with 5+ literally started to manage the teams. At 10+ you were running large customers, multiple groups. The industry grew at over 20% CAGR for a good 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the IT service industry was able to absorb the huge growth, thanks to the large number of folks graduating from the colleges (even after all the issues with the quality of education, we still had a large enough population available). Because of the growth, the pyramid never changed it\u2019s composition. (We had the same ratio of the pyramid). At the same time, the growth was ensuring that the experienced folks were getting pitched into managing a team, then a project, a program, a customer\u2026 and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess that era is slowly fading away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it\u2019s moving to an era, where people are getting the opportunity to work on a focussed area. They have the time to make a difference. The measure of the pyramid that you manage, is starting to lose out as the driver. Also the risk of the folks in the middle of the IT services organization pyramid is increasing, rapidly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing that rapidly. The folks are starting to age longer at each level. So the opportunity is getting similar to the captive organizations. When captive organizations pay better (typically), and the opportunity for growth is getting similar \u2013 there\u2019s a case for employees to actively consider captive now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surges and spikes<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This will always exist as an opportunity. But, most large service providers \u2013 agree to do this, only because they see this as part of the bigger outsourcing opportunity, or see this as an opportunity to penetrate and capture the larger pie down stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise, this would turn back into the \u201cold body shopping\u201d business. Clearly the margins will be low in this business and the uncertainty of the opportunity would not make it attractive to the IT service providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However this opportunity will always exist for service providers. Whether it stays with the IT service providers or gets more actively filled through the manpower agencies, will be difficult to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s happening to contracts?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The opportunity for the contract was large \u2013 with the work that was needed to \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d. Additionally the traditional way of delivering \u2013 meant the scoping was done up front, so it was possible to price with a certain element of risk factored in. We saw the likes of TPI and others advice the customers on how to structure the contracts and SLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all the automation going on in the \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, the work is coming down rapidly. Yes, the margins are going up. This will still be an opportunity for the Indian IT outsourcing service providers, albeit a smaller business than earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when you look at the newer systems being developed \u2013 Agile and DevOps are becoming the way of life. In this approach, signing a contract with the price fixed is not practical. So increase in the overall program costs \u2013 whether attributable to the customers never ending change or the vendor actively abetting changes to \u201cdrive more revenue\u201d can become very debatable. So contracting in these cases is going to become more challenging, unless there\u2019s a very high level of trust between the customer and the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

The Indian IT service model was simple and elegant (at least as long as it works). You hire a set of young college graduates, put them through a rigorous training. Soon they were enthusiastic to show their prowess at work at the entry level. They served a couple of years at the entry level. In the meanwhile, with the growth we saw, there were even more college graduates hired with every passing year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So everyone with 2 years experience, became a senior pro. Then those with 5+ literally started to manage the teams. At 10+ you were running large customers, multiple groups. The industry grew at over 20% CAGR for a good 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the IT service industry was able to absorb the huge growth, thanks to the large number of folks graduating from the colleges (even after all the issues with the quality of education, we still had a large enough population available). Because of the growth, the pyramid never changed it\u2019s composition. (We had the same ratio of the pyramid). At the same time, the growth was ensuring that the experienced folks were getting pitched into managing a team, then a project, a program, a customer\u2026 and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess that era is slowly fading away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it\u2019s moving to an era, where people are getting the opportunity to work on a focussed area. They have the time to make a difference. The measure of the pyramid that you manage, is starting to lose out as the driver. Also the risk of the folks in the middle of the IT services organization pyramid is increasing, rapidly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing that rapidly. The folks are starting to age longer at each level. So the opportunity is getting similar to the captive organizations. When captive organizations pay better (typically), and the opportunity for growth is getting similar \u2013 there\u2019s a case for employees to actively consider captive now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surges and spikes<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This will always exist as an opportunity. But, most large service providers \u2013 agree to do this, only because they see this as part of the bigger outsourcing opportunity, or see this as an opportunity to penetrate and capture the larger pie down stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise, this would turn back into the \u201cold body shopping\u201d business. Clearly the margins will be low in this business and the uncertainty of the opportunity would not make it attractive to the IT service providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However this opportunity will always exist for service providers. Whether it stays with the IT service providers or gets more actively filled through the manpower agencies, will be difficult to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s happening to contracts?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The opportunity for the contract was large \u2013 with the work that was needed to \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d. Additionally the traditional way of delivering \u2013 meant the scoping was done up front, so it was possible to price with a certain element of risk factored in. We saw the likes of TPI and others advice the customers on how to structure the contracts and SLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all the automation going on in the \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, the work is coming down rapidly. Yes, the margins are going up. This will still be an opportunity for the Indian IT outsourcing service providers, albeit a smaller business than earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when you look at the newer systems being developed \u2013 Agile and DevOps are becoming the way of life. In this approach, signing a contract with the price fixed is not practical. So increase in the overall program costs \u2013 whether attributable to the customers never ending change or the vendor actively abetting changes to \u201cdrive more revenue\u201d can become very debatable. So contracting in these cases is going to become more challenging, unless there\u2019s a very high level of trust between the customer and the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

So, when you look at the growth the IT outsourcing industry went through in the last two decades it
was a no-brainer for many of them to join the service industry to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indian IT service model was simple and elegant (at least as long as it works). You hire a set of young college graduates, put them through a rigorous training. Soon they were enthusiastic to show their prowess at work at the entry level. They served a couple of years at the entry level. In the meanwhile, with the growth we saw, there were even more college graduates hired with every passing year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So everyone with 2 years experience, became a senior pro. Then those with 5+ literally started to manage the teams. At 10+ you were running large customers, multiple groups. The industry grew at over 20% CAGR for a good 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the IT service industry was able to absorb the huge growth, thanks to the large number of folks graduating from the colleges (even after all the issues with the quality of education, we still had a large enough population available). Because of the growth, the pyramid never changed it\u2019s composition. (We had the same ratio of the pyramid). At the same time, the growth was ensuring that the experienced folks were getting pitched into managing a team, then a project, a program, a customer\u2026 and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess that era is slowly fading away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it\u2019s moving to an era, where people are getting the opportunity to work on a focussed area. They have the time to make a difference. The measure of the pyramid that you manage, is starting to lose out as the driver. Also the risk of the folks in the middle of the IT services organization pyramid is increasing, rapidly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing that rapidly. The folks are starting to age longer at each level. So the opportunity is getting similar to the captive organizations. When captive organizations pay better (typically), and the opportunity for growth is getting similar \u2013 there\u2019s a case for employees to actively consider captive now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surges and spikes<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This will always exist as an opportunity. But, most large service providers \u2013 agree to do this, only because they see this as part of the bigger outsourcing opportunity, or see this as an opportunity to penetrate and capture the larger pie down stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise, this would turn back into the \u201cold body shopping\u201d business. Clearly the margins will be low in this business and the uncertainty of the opportunity would not make it attractive to the IT service providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However this opportunity will always exist for service providers. Whether it stays with the IT service providers or gets more actively filled through the manpower agencies, will be difficult to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s happening to contracts?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The opportunity for the contract was large \u2013 with the work that was needed to \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d. Additionally the traditional way of delivering \u2013 meant the scoping was done up front, so it was possible to price with a certain element of risk factored in. We saw the likes of TPI and others advice the customers on how to structure the contracts and SLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all the automation going on in the \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, the work is coming down rapidly. Yes, the margins are going up. This will still be an opportunity for the Indian IT outsourcing service providers, albeit a smaller business than earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when you look at the newer systems being developed \u2013 Agile and DevOps are becoming the way of life. In this approach, signing a contract with the price fixed is not practical. So increase in the overall program costs \u2013 whether attributable to the customers never ending change or the vendor actively abetting changes to \u201cdrive more revenue\u201d can become very debatable. So contracting in these cases is going to become more challenging, unless there\u2019s a very high level of trust between the customer and the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Then at the end of it, you were placed at the foot of an escalator (This is the bottom rung of the organizational pyramid). Just standing stable, you would progressive move up (akin to moving up the pyramid). If you were energetic, you could climb up a moving escalator (some of them who were on the fast track) and you reached the heights even quicker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, when you look at the growth the IT outsourcing industry went through in the last two decades it
was a no-brainer for many of them to join the service industry to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indian IT service model was simple and elegant (at least as long as it works). You hire a set of young college graduates, put them through a rigorous training. Soon they were enthusiastic to show their prowess at work at the entry level. They served a couple of years at the entry level. In the meanwhile, with the growth we saw, there were even more college graduates hired with every passing year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So everyone with 2 years experience, became a senior pro. Then those with 5+ literally started to manage the teams. At 10+ you were running large customers, multiple groups. The industry grew at over 20% CAGR for a good 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the IT service industry was able to absorb the huge growth, thanks to the large number of folks graduating from the colleges (even after all the issues with the quality of education, we still had a large enough population available). Because of the growth, the pyramid never changed it\u2019s composition. (We had the same ratio of the pyramid). At the same time, the growth was ensuring that the experienced folks were getting pitched into managing a team, then a project, a program, a customer\u2026 and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess that era is slowly fading away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it\u2019s moving to an era, where people are getting the opportunity to work on a focussed area. They have the time to make a difference. The measure of the pyramid that you manage, is starting to lose out as the driver. Also the risk of the folks in the middle of the IT services organization pyramid is increasing, rapidly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing that rapidly. The folks are starting to age longer at each level. So the opportunity is getting similar to the captive organizations. When captive organizations pay better (typically), and the opportunity for growth is getting similar \u2013 there\u2019s a case for employees to actively consider captive now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surges and spikes<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This will always exist as an opportunity. But, most large service providers \u2013 agree to do this, only because they see this as part of the bigger outsourcing opportunity, or see this as an opportunity to penetrate and capture the larger pie down stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise, this would turn back into the \u201cold body shopping\u201d business. Clearly the margins will be low in this business and the uncertainty of the opportunity would not make it attractive to the IT service providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However this opportunity will always exist for service providers. Whether it stays with the IT service providers or gets more actively filled through the manpower agencies, will be difficult to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s happening to contracts?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The opportunity for the contract was large \u2013 with the work that was needed to \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d. Additionally the traditional way of delivering \u2013 meant the scoping was done up front, so it was possible to price with a certain element of risk factored in. We saw the likes of TPI and others advice the customers on how to structure the contracts and SLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all the automation going on in the \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, the work is coming down rapidly. Yes, the margins are going up. This will still be an opportunity for the Indian IT outsourcing service providers, albeit a smaller business than earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when you look at the newer systems being developed \u2013 Agile and DevOps are becoming the way of life. In this approach, signing a contract with the price fixed is not practical. So increase in the overall program costs \u2013 whether attributable to the customers never ending change or the vendor actively abetting changes to \u201cdrive more revenue\u201d can become very debatable. So contracting in these cases is going to become more challenging, unless there\u2019s a very high level of trust between the customer and the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Imagine, you are getting out of a Bombay suburban train at peak hour in Victoria Terminus (this would be like the time when the campus folks finish the graduation). All you had to do was stand in the right direction, and you would be moved along, with no effort (this was akin to just getting a decent performance in college and attending the right interview \u2013 you would land a job with an IT major).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then at the end of it, you were placed at the foot of an escalator (This is the bottom rung of the organizational pyramid). Just standing stable, you would progressive move up (akin to moving up the pyramid). If you were energetic, you could climb up a moving escalator (some of them who were on the fast track) and you reached the heights even quicker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, when you look at the growth the IT outsourcing industry went through in the last two decades it
was a no-brainer for many of them to join the service industry to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indian IT service model was simple and elegant (at least as long as it works). You hire a set of young college graduates, put them through a rigorous training. Soon they were enthusiastic to show their prowess at work at the entry level. They served a couple of years at the entry level. In the meanwhile, with the growth we saw, there were even more college graduates hired with every passing year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So everyone with 2 years experience, became a senior pro. Then those with 5+ literally started to manage the teams. At 10+ you were running large customers, multiple groups. The industry grew at over 20% CAGR for a good 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the IT service industry was able to absorb the huge growth, thanks to the large number of folks graduating from the colleges (even after all the issues with the quality of education, we still had a large enough population available). Because of the growth, the pyramid never changed it\u2019s composition. (We had the same ratio of the pyramid). At the same time, the growth was ensuring that the experienced folks were getting pitched into managing a team, then a project, a program, a customer\u2026 and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess that era is slowly fading away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it\u2019s moving to an era, where people are getting the opportunity to work on a focussed area. They have the time to make a difference. The measure of the pyramid that you manage, is starting to lose out as the driver. Also the risk of the folks in the middle of the IT services organization pyramid is increasing, rapidly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing that rapidly. The folks are starting to age longer at each level. So the opportunity is getting similar to the captive organizations. When captive organizations pay better (typically), and the opportunity for growth is getting similar \u2013 there\u2019s a case for employees to actively consider captive now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surges and spikes<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This will always exist as an opportunity. But, most large service providers \u2013 agree to do this, only because they see this as part of the bigger outsourcing opportunity, or see this as an opportunity to penetrate and capture the larger pie down stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise, this would turn back into the \u201cold body shopping\u201d business. Clearly the margins will be low in this business and the uncertainty of the opportunity would not make it attractive to the IT service providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However this opportunity will always exist for service providers. Whether it stays with the IT service providers or gets more actively filled through the manpower agencies, will be difficult to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s happening to contracts?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The opportunity for the contract was large \u2013 with the work that was needed to \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d. Additionally the traditional way of delivering \u2013 meant the scoping was done up front, so it was possible to price with a certain element of risk factored in. We saw the likes of TPI and others advice the customers on how to structure the contracts and SLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all the automation going on in the \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, the work is coming down rapidly. Yes, the margins are going up. This will still be an opportunity for the Indian IT outsourcing service providers, albeit a smaller business than earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when you look at the newer systems being developed \u2013 Agile and DevOps are becoming the way of life. In this approach, signing a contract with the price fixed is not practical. So increase in the overall program costs \u2013 whether attributable to the customers never ending change or the vendor actively abetting changes to \u201cdrive more revenue\u201d can become very debatable. So contracting in these cases is going to become more challenging, unless there\u2019s a very high level of trust between the customer and the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

So, what\u2019s the employee perspective?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Imagine, you are getting out of a Bombay suburban train at peak hour in Victoria Terminus (this would be like the time when the campus folks finish the graduation). All you had to do was stand in the right direction, and you would be moved along, with no effort (this was akin to just getting a decent performance in college and attending the right interview \u2013 you would land a job with an IT major).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then at the end of it, you were placed at the foot of an escalator (This is the bottom rung of the organizational pyramid). Just standing stable, you would progressive move up (akin to moving up the pyramid). If you were energetic, you could climb up a moving escalator (some of them who were on the fast track) and you reached the heights even quicker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, when you look at the growth the IT outsourcing industry went through in the last two decades it
was a no-brainer for many of them to join the service industry to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indian IT service model was simple and elegant (at least as long as it works). You hire a set of young college graduates, put them through a rigorous training. Soon they were enthusiastic to show their prowess at work at the entry level. They served a couple of years at the entry level. In the meanwhile, with the growth we saw, there were even more college graduates hired with every passing year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So everyone with 2 years experience, became a senior pro. Then those with 5+ literally started to manage the teams. At 10+ you were running large customers, multiple groups. The industry grew at over 20% CAGR for a good 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the IT service industry was able to absorb the huge growth, thanks to the large number of folks graduating from the colleges (even after all the issues with the quality of education, we still had a large enough population available). Because of the growth, the pyramid never changed it\u2019s composition. (We had the same ratio of the pyramid). At the same time, the growth was ensuring that the experienced folks were getting pitched into managing a team, then a project, a program, a customer\u2026 and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess that era is slowly fading away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it\u2019s moving to an era, where people are getting the opportunity to work on a focussed area. They have the time to make a difference. The measure of the pyramid that you manage, is starting to lose out as the driver. Also the risk of the folks in the middle of the IT services organization pyramid is increasing, rapidly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing that rapidly. The folks are starting to age longer at each level. So the opportunity is getting similar to the captive organizations. When captive organizations pay better (typically), and the opportunity for growth is getting similar \u2013 there\u2019s a case for employees to actively consider captive now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surges and spikes<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This will always exist as an opportunity. But, most large service providers \u2013 agree to do this, only because they see this as part of the bigger outsourcing opportunity, or see this as an opportunity to penetrate and capture the larger pie down stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise, this would turn back into the \u201cold body shopping\u201d business. Clearly the margins will be low in this business and the uncertainty of the opportunity would not make it attractive to the IT service providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However this opportunity will always exist for service providers. Whether it stays with the IT service providers or gets more actively filled through the manpower agencies, will be difficult to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s happening to contracts?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The opportunity for the contract was large \u2013 with the work that was needed to \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d. Additionally the traditional way of delivering \u2013 meant the scoping was done up front, so it was possible to price with a certain element of risk factored in. We saw the likes of TPI and others advice the customers on how to structure the contracts and SLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all the automation going on in the \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, the work is coming down rapidly. Yes, the margins are going up. This will still be an opportunity for the Indian IT outsourcing service providers, albeit a smaller business than earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when you look at the newer systems being developed \u2013 Agile and DevOps are becoming the way of life. In this approach, signing a contract with the price fixed is not practical. So increase in the overall program costs \u2013 whether attributable to the customers never ending change or the vendor actively abetting changes to \u201cdrive more revenue\u201d can become very debatable. So contracting in these cases is going to become more challenging, unless there\u2019s a very high level of trust between the customer and the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

I think, this value proposition is getting eroded slowly. So, this factor, in the case of large corporations, can start veering towards insourcing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what\u2019s the employee perspective?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Imagine, you are getting out of a Bombay suburban train at peak hour in Victoria Terminus (this would be like the time when the campus folks finish the graduation). All you had to do was stand in the right direction, and you would be moved along, with no effort (this was akin to just getting a decent performance in college and attending the right interview \u2013 you would land a job with an IT major).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then at the end of it, you were placed at the foot of an escalator (This is the bottom rung of the organizational pyramid). Just standing stable, you would progressive move up (akin to moving up the pyramid). If you were energetic, you could climb up a moving escalator (some of them who were on the fast track) and you reached the heights even quicker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, when you look at the growth the IT outsourcing industry went through in the last two decades it
was a no-brainer for many of them to join the service industry to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indian IT service model was simple and elegant (at least as long as it works). You hire a set of young college graduates, put them through a rigorous training. Soon they were enthusiastic to show their prowess at work at the entry level. They served a couple of years at the entry level. In the meanwhile, with the growth we saw, there were even more college graduates hired with every passing year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So everyone with 2 years experience, became a senior pro. Then those with 5+ literally started to manage the teams. At 10+ you were running large customers, multiple groups. The industry grew at over 20% CAGR for a good 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the IT service industry was able to absorb the huge growth, thanks to the large number of folks graduating from the colleges (even after all the issues with the quality of education, we still had a large enough population available). Because of the growth, the pyramid never changed it\u2019s composition. (We had the same ratio of the pyramid). At the same time, the growth was ensuring that the experienced folks were getting pitched into managing a team, then a project, a program, a customer\u2026 and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess that era is slowly fading away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it\u2019s moving to an era, where people are getting the opportunity to work on a focussed area. They have the time to make a difference. The measure of the pyramid that you manage, is starting to lose out as the driver. Also the risk of the folks in the middle of the IT services organization pyramid is increasing, rapidly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing that rapidly. The folks are starting to age longer at each level. So the opportunity is getting similar to the captive organizations. When captive organizations pay better (typically), and the opportunity for growth is getting similar \u2013 there\u2019s a case for employees to actively consider captive now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surges and spikes<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This will always exist as an opportunity. But, most large service providers \u2013 agree to do this, only because they see this as part of the bigger outsourcing opportunity, or see this as an opportunity to penetrate and capture the larger pie down stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise, this would turn back into the \u201cold body shopping\u201d business. Clearly the margins will be low in this business and the uncertainty of the opportunity would not make it attractive to the IT service providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However this opportunity will always exist for service providers. Whether it stays with the IT service providers or gets more actively filled through the manpower agencies, will be difficult to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s happening to contracts?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The opportunity for the contract was large \u2013 with the work that was needed to \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d. Additionally the traditional way of delivering \u2013 meant the scoping was done up front, so it was possible to price with a certain element of risk factored in. We saw the likes of TPI and others advice the customers on how to structure the contracts and SLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all the automation going on in the \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, the work is coming down rapidly. Yes, the margins are going up. This will still be an opportunity for the Indian IT outsourcing service providers, albeit a smaller business than earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when you look at the newer systems being developed \u2013 Agile and DevOps are becoming the way of life. In this approach, signing a contract with the price fixed is not practical. So increase in the overall program costs \u2013 whether attributable to the customers never ending change or the vendor actively abetting changes to \u201cdrive more revenue\u201d can become very debatable. So contracting in these cases is going to become more challenging, unless there\u2019s a very high level of trust between the customer and the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

The CIO now looks at the additional costs that the IT outsourcing vendor charges \u2013 for the vendors\u2019 Sales and Marketing, for their need to manage the contracts, for possibly keeping a bench, and the industry margin of say 20%. Why would she\/ he want to pay that any more. Would it be better for the CIO to spend a little more on his captive staff \u2013 which can help him in retaining and motivating them more\u2026 and still have some money saved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think, this value proposition is getting eroded slowly. So, this factor, in the case of large corporations, can start veering towards insourcing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what\u2019s the employee perspective?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Imagine, you are getting out of a Bombay suburban train at peak hour in Victoria Terminus (this would be like the time when the campus folks finish the graduation). All you had to do was stand in the right direction, and you would be moved along, with no effort (this was akin to just getting a decent performance in college and attending the right interview \u2013 you would land a job with an IT major).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then at the end of it, you were placed at the foot of an escalator (This is the bottom rung of the organizational pyramid). Just standing stable, you would progressive move up (akin to moving up the pyramid). If you were energetic, you could climb up a moving escalator (some of them who were on the fast track) and you reached the heights even quicker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, when you look at the growth the IT outsourcing industry went through in the last two decades it
was a no-brainer for many of them to join the service industry to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indian IT service model was simple and elegant (at least as long as it works). You hire a set of young college graduates, put them through a rigorous training. Soon they were enthusiastic to show their prowess at work at the entry level. They served a couple of years at the entry level. In the meanwhile, with the growth we saw, there were even more college graduates hired with every passing year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So everyone with 2 years experience, became a senior pro. Then those with 5+ literally started to manage the teams. At 10+ you were running large customers, multiple groups. The industry grew at over 20% CAGR for a good 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the IT service industry was able to absorb the huge growth, thanks to the large number of folks graduating from the colleges (even after all the issues with the quality of education, we still had a large enough population available). Because of the growth, the pyramid never changed it\u2019s composition. (We had the same ratio of the pyramid). At the same time, the growth was ensuring that the experienced folks were getting pitched into managing a team, then a project, a program, a customer\u2026 and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess that era is slowly fading away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it\u2019s moving to an era, where people are getting the opportunity to work on a focussed area. They have the time to make a difference. The measure of the pyramid that you manage, is starting to lose out as the driver. Also the risk of the folks in the middle of the IT services organization pyramid is increasing, rapidly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing that rapidly. The folks are starting to age longer at each level. So the opportunity is getting similar to the captive organizations. When captive organizations pay better (typically), and the opportunity for growth is getting similar \u2013 there\u2019s a case for employees to actively consider captive now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surges and spikes<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This will always exist as an opportunity. But, most large service providers \u2013 agree to do this, only because they see this as part of the bigger outsourcing opportunity, or see this as an opportunity to penetrate and capture the larger pie down stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise, this would turn back into the \u201cold body shopping\u201d business. Clearly the margins will be low in this business and the uncertainty of the opportunity would not make it attractive to the IT service providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However this opportunity will always exist for service providers. Whether it stays with the IT service providers or gets more actively filled through the manpower agencies, will be difficult to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s happening to contracts?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The opportunity for the contract was large \u2013 with the work that was needed to \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d. Additionally the traditional way of delivering \u2013 meant the scoping was done up front, so it was possible to price with a certain element of risk factored in. We saw the likes of TPI and others advice the customers on how to structure the contracts and SLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all the automation going on in the \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, the work is coming down rapidly. Yes, the margins are going up. This will still be an opportunity for the Indian IT outsourcing service providers, albeit a smaller business than earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when you look at the newer systems being developed \u2013 Agile and DevOps are becoming the way of life. In this approach, signing a contract with the price fixed is not practical. So increase in the overall program costs \u2013 whether attributable to the customers never ending change or the vendor actively abetting changes to \u201cdrive more revenue\u201d can become very debatable. So contracting in these cases is going to become more challenging, unless there\u2019s a very high level of trust between the customer and the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

What does this mean \u2013 the bottom of the pyramid is turning into a cylinder. Could it eventually become a diamond? This would eventually mean that the cost advantage of an outsourcing service provider is starting to move away (especially for those CIOs who have large teams - 1000+).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CIO now looks at the additional costs that the IT outsourcing vendor charges \u2013 for the vendors\u2019 Sales and Marketing, for their need to manage the contracts, for possibly keeping a bench, and the industry margin of say 20%. Why would she\/ he want to pay that any more. Would it be better for the CIO to spend a little more on his captive staff \u2013 which can help him in retaining and motivating them more\u2026 and still have some money saved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think, this value proposition is getting eroded slowly. So, this factor, in the case of large corporations, can start veering towards insourcing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what\u2019s the employee perspective?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Imagine, you are getting out of a Bombay suburban train at peak hour in Victoria Terminus (this would be like the time when the campus folks finish the graduation). All you had to do was stand in the right direction, and you would be moved along, with no effort (this was akin to just getting a decent performance in college and attending the right interview \u2013 you would land a job with an IT major).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then at the end of it, you were placed at the foot of an escalator (This is the bottom rung of the organizational pyramid). Just standing stable, you would progressive move up (akin to moving up the pyramid). If you were energetic, you could climb up a moving escalator (some of them who were on the fast track) and you reached the heights even quicker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, when you look at the growth the IT outsourcing industry went through in the last two decades it
was a no-brainer for many of them to join the service industry to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indian IT service model was simple and elegant (at least as long as it works). You hire a set of young college graduates, put them through a rigorous training. Soon they were enthusiastic to show their prowess at work at the entry level. They served a couple of years at the entry level. In the meanwhile, with the growth we saw, there were even more college graduates hired with every passing year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So everyone with 2 years experience, became a senior pro. Then those with 5+ literally started to manage the teams. At 10+ you were running large customers, multiple groups. The industry grew at over 20% CAGR for a good 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the IT service industry was able to absorb the huge growth, thanks to the large number of folks graduating from the colleges (even after all the issues with the quality of education, we still had a large enough population available). Because of the growth, the pyramid never changed it\u2019s composition. (We had the same ratio of the pyramid). At the same time, the growth was ensuring that the experienced folks were getting pitched into managing a team, then a project, a program, a customer\u2026 and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess that era is slowly fading away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it\u2019s moving to an era, where people are getting the opportunity to work on a focussed area. They have the time to make a difference. The measure of the pyramid that you manage, is starting to lose out as the driver. Also the risk of the folks in the middle of the IT services organization pyramid is increasing, rapidly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing that rapidly. The folks are starting to age longer at each level. So the opportunity is getting similar to the captive organizations. When captive organizations pay better (typically), and the opportunity for growth is getting similar \u2013 there\u2019s a case for employees to actively consider captive now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surges and spikes<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This will always exist as an opportunity. But, most large service providers \u2013 agree to do this, only because they see this as part of the bigger outsourcing opportunity, or see this as an opportunity to penetrate and capture the larger pie down stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise, this would turn back into the \u201cold body shopping\u201d business. Clearly the margins will be low in this business and the uncertainty of the opportunity would not make it attractive to the IT service providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However this opportunity will always exist for service providers. Whether it stays with the IT service providers or gets more actively filled through the manpower agencies, will be difficult to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s happening to contracts?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The opportunity for the contract was large \u2013 with the work that was needed to \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d. Additionally the traditional way of delivering \u2013 meant the scoping was done up front, so it was possible to price with a certain element of risk factored in. We saw the likes of TPI and others advice the customers on how to structure the contracts and SLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all the automation going on in the \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, the work is coming down rapidly. Yes, the margins are going up. This will still be an opportunity for the Indian IT outsourcing service providers, albeit a smaller business than earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when you look at the newer systems being developed \u2013 Agile and DevOps are becoming the way of life. In this approach, signing a contract with the price fixed is not practical. So increase in the overall program costs \u2013 whether attributable to the customers never ending change or the vendor actively abetting changes to \u201cdrive more revenue\u201d can become very debatable. So contracting in these cases is going to become more challenging, unless there\u2019s a very high level of trust between the customer and the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Now, let\u2019s see what\u2019s the change that\u2019s happening? The breakneck speed of growth, is coming down, in the IT outsourcing services industry. So the addition of head count at the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing (though it\u2019s happening at the same level as the prior years and some times it could be a little lesser too.) The best indicator is the fact that the average age in the industry is steadily increasing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does this mean \u2013 the bottom of the pyramid is turning into a cylinder. Could it eventually become a diamond? This would eventually mean that the cost advantage of an outsourcing service provider is starting to move away (especially for those CIOs who have large teams - 1000+).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CIO now looks at the additional costs that the IT outsourcing vendor charges \u2013 for the vendors\u2019 Sales and Marketing, for their need to manage the contracts, for possibly keeping a bench, and the industry margin of say 20%. Why would she\/ he want to pay that any more. Would it be better for the CIO to spend a little more on his captive staff \u2013 which can help him in retaining and motivating them more\u2026 and still have some money saved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think, this value proposition is getting eroded slowly. So, this factor, in the case of large corporations, can start veering towards insourcing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what\u2019s the employee perspective?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Imagine, you are getting out of a Bombay suburban train at peak hour in Victoria Terminus (this would be like the time when the campus folks finish the graduation). All you had to do was stand in the right direction, and you would be moved along, with no effort (this was akin to just getting a decent performance in college and attending the right interview \u2013 you would land a job with an IT major).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then at the end of it, you were placed at the foot of an escalator (This is the bottom rung of the organizational pyramid). Just standing stable, you would progressive move up (akin to moving up the pyramid). If you were energetic, you could climb up a moving escalator (some of them who were on the fast track) and you reached the heights even quicker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, when you look at the growth the IT outsourcing industry went through in the last two decades it
was a no-brainer for many of them to join the service industry to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indian IT service model was simple and elegant (at least as long as it works). You hire a set of young college graduates, put them through a rigorous training. Soon they were enthusiastic to show their prowess at work at the entry level. They served a couple of years at the entry level. In the meanwhile, with the growth we saw, there were even more college graduates hired with every passing year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So everyone with 2 years experience, became a senior pro. Then those with 5+ literally started to manage the teams. At 10+ you were running large customers, multiple groups. The industry grew at over 20% CAGR for a good 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the IT service industry was able to absorb the huge growth, thanks to the large number of folks graduating from the colleges (even after all the issues with the quality of education, we still had a large enough population available). Because of the growth, the pyramid never changed it\u2019s composition. (We had the same ratio of the pyramid). At the same time, the growth was ensuring that the experienced folks were getting pitched into managing a team, then a project, a program, a customer\u2026 and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess that era is slowly fading away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it\u2019s moving to an era, where people are getting the opportunity to work on a focussed area. They have the time to make a difference. The measure of the pyramid that you manage, is starting to lose out as the driver. Also the risk of the folks in the middle of the IT services organization pyramid is increasing, rapidly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing that rapidly. The folks are starting to age longer at each level. So the opportunity is getting similar to the captive organizations. When captive organizations pay better (typically), and the opportunity for growth is getting similar \u2013 there\u2019s a case for employees to actively consider captive now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surges and spikes<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This will always exist as an opportunity. But, most large service providers \u2013 agree to do this, only because they see this as part of the bigger outsourcing opportunity, or see this as an opportunity to penetrate and capture the larger pie down stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise, this would turn back into the \u201cold body shopping\u201d business. Clearly the margins will be low in this business and the uncertainty of the opportunity would not make it attractive to the IT service providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However this opportunity will always exist for service providers. Whether it stays with the IT service providers or gets more actively filled through the manpower agencies, will be difficult to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s happening to contracts?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The opportunity for the contract was large \u2013 with the work that was needed to \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d. Additionally the traditional way of delivering \u2013 meant the scoping was done up front, so it was possible to price with a certain element of risk factored in. We saw the likes of TPI and others advice the customers on how to structure the contracts and SLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all the automation going on in the \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, the work is coming down rapidly. Yes, the margins are going up. This will still be an opportunity for the Indian IT outsourcing service providers, albeit a smaller business than earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when you look at the newer systems being developed \u2013 Agile and DevOps are becoming the way of life. In this approach, signing a contract with the price fixed is not practical. So increase in the overall program costs \u2013 whether attributable to the customers never ending change or the vendor actively abetting changes to \u201cdrive more revenue\u201d can become very debatable. So contracting in these cases is going to become more challenging, unless there\u2019s a very high level of trust between the customer and the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

This could explain, why many an organization, found that a captive was not viable after a point of time. So they even sold them to the service providers \u2013  who were good as chiselling the diamonds and cylinders back to the pyramid!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, let\u2019s see what\u2019s the change that\u2019s happening? The breakneck speed of growth, is coming down, in the IT outsourcing services industry. So the addition of head count at the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing (though it\u2019s happening at the same level as the prior years and some times it could be a little lesser too.) The best indicator is the fact that the average age in the industry is steadily increasing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does this mean \u2013 the bottom of the pyramid is turning into a cylinder. Could it eventually become a diamond? This would eventually mean that the cost advantage of an outsourcing service provider is starting to move away (especially for those CIOs who have large teams - 1000+).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CIO now looks at the additional costs that the IT outsourcing vendor charges \u2013 for the vendors\u2019 Sales and Marketing, for their need to manage the contracts, for possibly keeping a bench, and the industry margin of say 20%. Why would she\/ he want to pay that any more. Would it be better for the CIO to spend a little more on his captive staff \u2013 which can help him in retaining and motivating them more\u2026 and still have some money saved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think, this value proposition is getting eroded slowly. So, this factor, in the case of large corporations, can start veering towards insourcing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what\u2019s the employee perspective?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Imagine, you are getting out of a Bombay suburban train at peak hour in Victoria Terminus (this would be like the time when the campus folks finish the graduation). All you had to do was stand in the right direction, and you would be moved along, with no effort (this was akin to just getting a decent performance in college and attending the right interview \u2013 you would land a job with an IT major).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then at the end of it, you were placed at the foot of an escalator (This is the bottom rung of the organizational pyramid). Just standing stable, you would progressive move up (akin to moving up the pyramid). If you were energetic, you could climb up a moving escalator (some of them who were on the fast track) and you reached the heights even quicker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, when you look at the growth the IT outsourcing industry went through in the last two decades it
was a no-brainer for many of them to join the service industry to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indian IT service model was simple and elegant (at least as long as it works). You hire a set of young college graduates, put them through a rigorous training. Soon they were enthusiastic to show their prowess at work at the entry level. They served a couple of years at the entry level. In the meanwhile, with the growth we saw, there were even more college graduates hired with every passing year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So everyone with 2 years experience, became a senior pro. Then those with 5+ literally started to manage the teams. At 10+ you were running large customers, multiple groups. The industry grew at over 20% CAGR for a good 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the IT service industry was able to absorb the huge growth, thanks to the large number of folks graduating from the colleges (even after all the issues with the quality of education, we still had a large enough population available). Because of the growth, the pyramid never changed it\u2019s composition. (We had the same ratio of the pyramid). At the same time, the growth was ensuring that the experienced folks were getting pitched into managing a team, then a project, a program, a customer\u2026 and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess that era is slowly fading away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it\u2019s moving to an era, where people are getting the opportunity to work on a focussed area. They have the time to make a difference. The measure of the pyramid that you manage, is starting to lose out as the driver. Also the risk of the folks in the middle of the IT services organization pyramid is increasing, rapidly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing that rapidly. The folks are starting to age longer at each level. So the opportunity is getting similar to the captive organizations. When captive organizations pay better (typically), and the opportunity for growth is getting similar \u2013 there\u2019s a case for employees to actively consider captive now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surges and spikes<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This will always exist as an opportunity. But, most large service providers \u2013 agree to do this, only because they see this as part of the bigger outsourcing opportunity, or see this as an opportunity to penetrate and capture the larger pie down stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise, this would turn back into the \u201cold body shopping\u201d business. Clearly the margins will be low in this business and the uncertainty of the opportunity would not make it attractive to the IT service providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However this opportunity will always exist for service providers. Whether it stays with the IT service providers or gets more actively filled through the manpower agencies, will be difficult to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s happening to contracts?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The opportunity for the contract was large \u2013 with the work that was needed to \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d. Additionally the traditional way of delivering \u2013 meant the scoping was done up front, so it was possible to price with a certain element of risk factored in. We saw the likes of TPI and others advice the customers on how to structure the contracts and SLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all the automation going on in the \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, the work is coming down rapidly. Yes, the margins are going up. This will still be an opportunity for the Indian IT outsourcing service providers, albeit a smaller business than earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when you look at the newer systems being developed \u2013 Agile and DevOps are becoming the way of life. In this approach, signing a contract with the price fixed is not practical. So increase in the overall program costs \u2013 whether attributable to the customers never ending change or the vendor actively abetting changes to \u201cdrive more revenue\u201d can become very debatable. So contracting in these cases is going to become more challenging, unless there\u2019s a very high level of trust between the customer and the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

When you look at the captives (or insourced organization), they would have scaled up in the beginning rapidly. After that, they would have reached the peak head count. So invariably, there ability to add at the bottom of the pyramid would rapidly diminish. When that started to happen, they would slowly start move from the pyramid to a cylinder or even a diamond at times in the organizational shape. Any such model would result in a higher cost, compared to the pyramid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This could explain, why many an organization, found that a captive was not viable after a point of time. So they even sold them to the service providers \u2013  who were good as chiselling the diamonds and cylinders back to the pyramid!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, let\u2019s see what\u2019s the change that\u2019s happening? The breakneck speed of growth, is coming down, in the IT outsourcing services industry. So the addition of head count at the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing (though it\u2019s happening at the same level as the prior years and some times it could be a little lesser too.) The best indicator is the fact that the average age in the industry is steadily increasing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does this mean \u2013 the bottom of the pyramid is turning into a cylinder. Could it eventually become a diamond? This would eventually mean that the cost advantage of an outsourcing service provider is starting to move away (especially for those CIOs who have large teams - 1000+).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CIO now looks at the additional costs that the IT outsourcing vendor charges \u2013 for the vendors\u2019 Sales and Marketing, for their need to manage the contracts, for possibly keeping a bench, and the industry margin of say 20%. Why would she\/ he want to pay that any more. Would it be better for the CIO to spend a little more on his captive staff \u2013 which can help him in retaining and motivating them more\u2026 and still have some money saved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think, this value proposition is getting eroded slowly. So, this factor, in the case of large corporations, can start veering towards insourcing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what\u2019s the employee perspective?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Imagine, you are getting out of a Bombay suburban train at peak hour in Victoria Terminus (this would be like the time when the campus folks finish the graduation). All you had to do was stand in the right direction, and you would be moved along, with no effort (this was akin to just getting a decent performance in college and attending the right interview \u2013 you would land a job with an IT major).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then at the end of it, you were placed at the foot of an escalator (This is the bottom rung of the organizational pyramid). Just standing stable, you would progressive move up (akin to moving up the pyramid). If you were energetic, you could climb up a moving escalator (some of them who were on the fast track) and you reached the heights even quicker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, when you look at the growth the IT outsourcing industry went through in the last two decades it
was a no-brainer for many of them to join the service industry to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indian IT service model was simple and elegant (at least as long as it works). You hire a set of young college graduates, put them through a rigorous training. Soon they were enthusiastic to show their prowess at work at the entry level. They served a couple of years at the entry level. In the meanwhile, with the growth we saw, there were even more college graduates hired with every passing year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So everyone with 2 years experience, became a senior pro. Then those with 5+ literally started to manage the teams. At 10+ you were running large customers, multiple groups. The industry grew at over 20% CAGR for a good 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the IT service industry was able to absorb the huge growth, thanks to the large number of folks graduating from the colleges (even after all the issues with the quality of education, we still had a large enough population available). Because of the growth, the pyramid never changed it\u2019s composition. (We had the same ratio of the pyramid). At the same time, the growth was ensuring that the experienced folks were getting pitched into managing a team, then a project, a program, a customer\u2026 and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess that era is slowly fading away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it\u2019s moving to an era, where people are getting the opportunity to work on a focussed area. They have the time to make a difference. The measure of the pyramid that you manage, is starting to lose out as the driver. Also the risk of the folks in the middle of the IT services organization pyramid is increasing, rapidly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing that rapidly. The folks are starting to age longer at each level. So the opportunity is getting similar to the captive organizations. When captive organizations pay better (typically), and the opportunity for growth is getting similar \u2013 there\u2019s a case for employees to actively consider captive now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surges and spikes<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This will always exist as an opportunity. But, most large service providers \u2013 agree to do this, only because they see this as part of the bigger outsourcing opportunity, or see this as an opportunity to penetrate and capture the larger pie down stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise, this would turn back into the \u201cold body shopping\u201d business. Clearly the margins will be low in this business and the uncertainty of the opportunity would not make it attractive to the IT service providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However this opportunity will always exist for service providers. Whether it stays with the IT service providers or gets more actively filled through the manpower agencies, will be difficult to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s happening to contracts?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The opportunity for the contract was large \u2013 with the work that was needed to \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d. Additionally the traditional way of delivering \u2013 meant the scoping was done up front, so it was possible to price with a certain element of risk factored in. We saw the likes of TPI and others advice the customers on how to structure the contracts and SLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all the automation going on in the \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, the work is coming down rapidly. Yes, the margins are going up. This will still be an opportunity for the Indian IT outsourcing service providers, albeit a smaller business than earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when you look at the newer systems being developed \u2013 Agile and DevOps are becoming the way of life. In this approach, signing a contract with the price fixed is not practical. So increase in the overall program costs \u2013 whether attributable to the customers never ending change or the vendor actively abetting changes to \u201cdrive more revenue\u201d can become very debatable. So contracting in these cases is going to become more challenging, unless there\u2019s a very high level of trust between the customer and the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

With such a wonderful model, the Indian IT service industry was able to keep the cost fairly constant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you look at the captives (or insourced organization), they would have scaled up in the beginning rapidly. After that, they would have reached the peak head count. So invariably, there ability to add at the bottom of the pyramid would rapidly diminish. When that started to happen, they would slowly start move from the pyramid to a cylinder or even a diamond at times in the organizational shape. Any such model would result in a higher cost, compared to the pyramid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This could explain, why many an organization, found that a captive was not viable after a point of time. So they even sold them to the service providers \u2013  who were good as chiselling the diamonds and cylinders back to the pyramid!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, let\u2019s see what\u2019s the change that\u2019s happening? The breakneck speed of growth, is coming down, in the IT outsourcing services industry. So the addition of head count at the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing (though it\u2019s happening at the same level as the prior years and some times it could be a little lesser too.) The best indicator is the fact that the average age in the industry is steadily increasing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does this mean \u2013 the bottom of the pyramid is turning into a cylinder. Could it eventually become a diamond? This would eventually mean that the cost advantage of an outsourcing service provider is starting to move away (especially for those CIOs who have large teams - 1000+).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CIO now looks at the additional costs that the IT outsourcing vendor charges \u2013 for the vendors\u2019 Sales and Marketing, for their need to manage the contracts, for possibly keeping a bench, and the industry margin of say 20%. Why would she\/ he want to pay that any more. Would it be better for the CIO to spend a little more on his captive staff \u2013 which can help him in retaining and motivating them more\u2026 and still have some money saved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think, this value proposition is getting eroded slowly. So, this factor, in the case of large corporations, can start veering towards insourcing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what\u2019s the employee perspective?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Imagine, you are getting out of a Bombay suburban train at peak hour in Victoria Terminus (this would be like the time when the campus folks finish the graduation). All you had to do was stand in the right direction, and you would be moved along, with no effort (this was akin to just getting a decent performance in college and attending the right interview \u2013 you would land a job with an IT major).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then at the end of it, you were placed at the foot of an escalator (This is the bottom rung of the organizational pyramid). Just standing stable, you would progressive move up (akin to moving up the pyramid). If you were energetic, you could climb up a moving escalator (some of them who were on the fast track) and you reached the heights even quicker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, when you look at the growth the IT outsourcing industry went through in the last two decades it
was a no-brainer for many of them to join the service industry to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indian IT service model was simple and elegant (at least as long as it works). You hire a set of young college graduates, put them through a rigorous training. Soon they were enthusiastic to show their prowess at work at the entry level. They served a couple of years at the entry level. In the meanwhile, with the growth we saw, there were even more college graduates hired with every passing year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So everyone with 2 years experience, became a senior pro. Then those with 5+ literally started to manage the teams. At 10+ you were running large customers, multiple groups. The industry grew at over 20% CAGR for a good 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the IT service industry was able to absorb the huge growth, thanks to the large number of folks graduating from the colleges (even after all the issues with the quality of education, we still had a large enough population available). Because of the growth, the pyramid never changed it\u2019s composition. (We had the same ratio of the pyramid). At the same time, the growth was ensuring that the experienced folks were getting pitched into managing a team, then a project, a program, a customer\u2026 and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess that era is slowly fading away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it\u2019s moving to an era, where people are getting the opportunity to work on a focussed area. They have the time to make a difference. The measure of the pyramid that you manage, is starting to lose out as the driver. Also the risk of the folks in the middle of the IT services organization pyramid is increasing, rapidly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing that rapidly. The folks are starting to age longer at each level. So the opportunity is getting similar to the captive organizations. When captive organizations pay better (typically), and the opportunity for growth is getting similar \u2013 there\u2019s a case for employees to actively consider captive now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surges and spikes<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This will always exist as an opportunity. But, most large service providers \u2013 agree to do this, only because they see this as part of the bigger outsourcing opportunity, or see this as an opportunity to penetrate and capture the larger pie down stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise, this would turn back into the \u201cold body shopping\u201d business. Clearly the margins will be low in this business and the uncertainty of the opportunity would not make it attractive to the IT service providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However this opportunity will always exist for service providers. Whether it stays with the IT service providers or gets more actively filled through the manpower agencies, will be difficult to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s happening to contracts?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The opportunity for the contract was large \u2013 with the work that was needed to \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d. Additionally the traditional way of delivering \u2013 meant the scoping was done up front, so it was possible to price with a certain element of risk factored in. We saw the likes of TPI and others advice the customers on how to structure the contracts and SLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all the automation going on in the \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, the work is coming down rapidly. Yes, the margins are going up. This will still be an opportunity for the Indian IT outsourcing service providers, albeit a smaller business than earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when you look at the newer systems being developed \u2013 Agile and DevOps are becoming the way of life. In this approach, signing a contract with the price fixed is not practical. So increase in the overall program costs \u2013 whether attributable to the customers never ending change or the vendor actively abetting changes to \u201cdrive more revenue\u201d can become very debatable. So contracting in these cases is going to become more challenging, unless there\u2019s a very high level of trust between the customer and the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

So if the industry hired 10K campus grads this year, it would be 12K next, 15K, 20K, 26K, 33K\u2026. and so on over the years. So if they came in as Programmers, the existing Programmers would move up to become Analysts, the Analysts would move up to Sr. Analysts and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With such a wonderful model, the Indian IT service industry was able to keep the cost fairly constant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you look at the captives (or insourced organization), they would have scaled up in the beginning rapidly. After that, they would have reached the peak head count. So invariably, there ability to add at the bottom of the pyramid would rapidly diminish. When that started to happen, they would slowly start move from the pyramid to a cylinder or even a diamond at times in the organizational shape. Any such model would result in a higher cost, compared to the pyramid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This could explain, why many an organization, found that a captive was not viable after a point of time. So they even sold them to the service providers \u2013  who were good as chiselling the diamonds and cylinders back to the pyramid!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, let\u2019s see what\u2019s the change that\u2019s happening? The breakneck speed of growth, is coming down, in the IT outsourcing services industry. So the addition of head count at the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing (though it\u2019s happening at the same level as the prior years and some times it could be a little lesser too.) The best indicator is the fact that the average age in the industry is steadily increasing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does this mean \u2013 the bottom of the pyramid is turning into a cylinder. Could it eventually become a diamond? This would eventually mean that the cost advantage of an outsourcing service provider is starting to move away (especially for those CIOs who have large teams - 1000+).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CIO now looks at the additional costs that the IT outsourcing vendor charges \u2013 for the vendors\u2019 Sales and Marketing, for their need to manage the contracts, for possibly keeping a bench, and the industry margin of say 20%. Why would she\/ he want to pay that any more. Would it be better for the CIO to spend a little more on his captive staff \u2013 which can help him in retaining and motivating them more\u2026 and still have some money saved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think, this value proposition is getting eroded slowly. So, this factor, in the case of large corporations, can start veering towards insourcing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what\u2019s the employee perspective?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Imagine, you are getting out of a Bombay suburban train at peak hour in Victoria Terminus (this would be like the time when the campus folks finish the graduation). All you had to do was stand in the right direction, and you would be moved along, with no effort (this was akin to just getting a decent performance in college and attending the right interview \u2013 you would land a job with an IT major).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then at the end of it, you were placed at the foot of an escalator (This is the bottom rung of the organizational pyramid). Just standing stable, you would progressive move up (akin to moving up the pyramid). If you were energetic, you could climb up a moving escalator (some of them who were on the fast track) and you reached the heights even quicker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, when you look at the growth the IT outsourcing industry went through in the last two decades it
was a no-brainer for many of them to join the service industry to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indian IT service model was simple and elegant (at least as long as it works). You hire a set of young college graduates, put them through a rigorous training. Soon they were enthusiastic to show their prowess at work at the entry level. They served a couple of years at the entry level. In the meanwhile, with the growth we saw, there were even more college graduates hired with every passing year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So everyone with 2 years experience, became a senior pro. Then those with 5+ literally started to manage the teams. At 10+ you were running large customers, multiple groups. The industry grew at over 20% CAGR for a good 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the IT service industry was able to absorb the huge growth, thanks to the large number of folks graduating from the colleges (even after all the issues with the quality of education, we still had a large enough population available). Because of the growth, the pyramid never changed it\u2019s composition. (We had the same ratio of the pyramid). At the same time, the growth was ensuring that the experienced folks were getting pitched into managing a team, then a project, a program, a customer\u2026 and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess that era is slowly fading away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it\u2019s moving to an era, where people are getting the opportunity to work on a focussed area. They have the time to make a difference. The measure of the pyramid that you manage, is starting to lose out as the driver. Also the risk of the folks in the middle of the IT services organization pyramid is increasing, rapidly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing that rapidly. The folks are starting to age longer at each level. So the opportunity is getting similar to the captive organizations. When captive organizations pay better (typically), and the opportunity for growth is getting similar \u2013 there\u2019s a case for employees to actively consider captive now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surges and spikes<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This will always exist as an opportunity. But, most large service providers \u2013 agree to do this, only because they see this as part of the bigger outsourcing opportunity, or see this as an opportunity to penetrate and capture the larger pie down stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise, this would turn back into the \u201cold body shopping\u201d business. Clearly the margins will be low in this business and the uncertainty of the opportunity would not make it attractive to the IT service providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However this opportunity will always exist for service providers. Whether it stays with the IT service providers or gets more actively filled through the manpower agencies, will be difficult to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s happening to contracts?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The opportunity for the contract was large \u2013 with the work that was needed to \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d. Additionally the traditional way of delivering \u2013 meant the scoping was done up front, so it was possible to price with a certain element of risk factored in. We saw the likes of TPI and others advice the customers on how to structure the contracts and SLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all the automation going on in the \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, the work is coming down rapidly. Yes, the margins are going up. This will still be an opportunity for the Indian IT outsourcing service providers, albeit a smaller business than earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when you look at the newer systems being developed \u2013 Agile and DevOps are becoming the way of life. In this approach, signing a contract with the price fixed is not practical. So increase in the overall program costs \u2013 whether attributable to the customers never ending change or the vendor actively abetting changes to \u201cdrive more revenue\u201d can become very debatable. So contracting in these cases is going to become more challenging, unless there\u2019s a very high level of trust between the customer and the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

All of us who know this industry, are well aware about the great Indian pyramid model.  With constant increase in IT\/ technology work from India,  the majority of this growth in the pyramid could not be sourced from other industries. [There have been exceptions - but the poaching from other industries contributed to only a small percentage]. With a 20x - 25x growth in head count over the last twenty years, the industry had to take fresh campus hires, train them and handle the growth that came their way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So if the industry hired 10K campus grads this year, it would be 12K next, 15K, 20K, 26K, 33K\u2026. and so on over the years. So if they came in as Programmers, the existing Programmers would move up to become Analysts, the Analysts would move up to Sr. Analysts and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With such a wonderful model, the Indian IT service industry was able to keep the cost fairly constant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you look at the captives (or insourced organization), they would have scaled up in the beginning rapidly. After that, they would have reached the peak head count. So invariably, there ability to add at the bottom of the pyramid would rapidly diminish. When that started to happen, they would slowly start move from the pyramid to a cylinder or even a diamond at times in the organizational shape. Any such model would result in a higher cost, compared to the pyramid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This could explain, why many an organization, found that a captive was not viable after a point of time. So they even sold them to the service providers \u2013  who were good as chiselling the diamonds and cylinders back to the pyramid!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, let\u2019s see what\u2019s the change that\u2019s happening? The breakneck speed of growth, is coming down, in the IT outsourcing services industry. So the addition of head count at the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing (though it\u2019s happening at the same level as the prior years and some times it could be a little lesser too.) The best indicator is the fact that the average age in the industry is steadily increasing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does this mean \u2013 the bottom of the pyramid is turning into a cylinder. Could it eventually become a diamond? This would eventually mean that the cost advantage of an outsourcing service provider is starting to move away (especially for those CIOs who have large teams - 1000+).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CIO now looks at the additional costs that the IT outsourcing vendor charges \u2013 for the vendors\u2019 Sales and Marketing, for their need to manage the contracts, for possibly keeping a bench, and the industry margin of say 20%. Why would she\/ he want to pay that any more. Would it be better for the CIO to spend a little more on his captive staff \u2013 which can help him in retaining and motivating them more\u2026 and still have some money saved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think, this value proposition is getting eroded slowly. So, this factor, in the case of large corporations, can start veering towards insourcing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what\u2019s the employee perspective?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Imagine, you are getting out of a Bombay suburban train at peak hour in Victoria Terminus (this would be like the time when the campus folks finish the graduation). All you had to do was stand in the right direction, and you would be moved along, with no effort (this was akin to just getting a decent performance in college and attending the right interview \u2013 you would land a job with an IT major).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then at the end of it, you were placed at the foot of an escalator (This is the bottom rung of the organizational pyramid). Just standing stable, you would progressive move up (akin to moving up the pyramid). If you were energetic, you could climb up a moving escalator (some of them who were on the fast track) and you reached the heights even quicker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, when you look at the growth the IT outsourcing industry went through in the last two decades it
was a no-brainer for many of them to join the service industry to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indian IT service model was simple and elegant (at least as long as it works). You hire a set of young college graduates, put them through a rigorous training. Soon they were enthusiastic to show their prowess at work at the entry level. They served a couple of years at the entry level. In the meanwhile, with the growth we saw, there were even more college graduates hired with every passing year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So everyone with 2 years experience, became a senior pro. Then those with 5+ literally started to manage the teams. At 10+ you were running large customers, multiple groups. The industry grew at over 20% CAGR for a good 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the IT service industry was able to absorb the huge growth, thanks to the large number of folks graduating from the colleges (even after all the issues with the quality of education, we still had a large enough population available). Because of the growth, the pyramid never changed it\u2019s composition. (We had the same ratio of the pyramid). At the same time, the growth was ensuring that the experienced folks were getting pitched into managing a team, then a project, a program, a customer\u2026 and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess that era is slowly fading away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it\u2019s moving to an era, where people are getting the opportunity to work on a focussed area. They have the time to make a difference. The measure of the pyramid that you manage, is starting to lose out as the driver. Also the risk of the folks in the middle of the IT services organization pyramid is increasing, rapidly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing that rapidly. The folks are starting to age longer at each level. So the opportunity is getting similar to the captive organizations. When captive organizations pay better (typically), and the opportunity for growth is getting similar \u2013 there\u2019s a case for employees to actively consider captive now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surges and spikes<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This will always exist as an opportunity. But, most large service providers \u2013 agree to do this, only because they see this as part of the bigger outsourcing opportunity, or see this as an opportunity to penetrate and capture the larger pie down stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise, this would turn back into the \u201cold body shopping\u201d business. Clearly the margins will be low in this business and the uncertainty of the opportunity would not make it attractive to the IT service providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However this opportunity will always exist for service providers. Whether it stays with the IT service providers or gets more actively filled through the manpower agencies, will be difficult to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s happening to contracts?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The opportunity for the contract was large \u2013 with the work that was needed to \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d. Additionally the traditional way of delivering \u2013 meant the scoping was done up front, so it was possible to price with a certain element of risk factored in. We saw the likes of TPI and others advice the customers on how to structure the contracts and SLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all the automation going on in the \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, the work is coming down rapidly. Yes, the margins are going up. This will still be an opportunity for the Indian IT outsourcing service providers, albeit a smaller business than earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when you look at the newer systems being developed \u2013 Agile and DevOps are becoming the way of life. In this approach, signing a contract with the price fixed is not practical. So increase in the overall program costs \u2013 whether attributable to the customers never ending change or the vendor actively abetting changes to \u201cdrive more revenue\u201d can become very debatable. So contracting in these cases is going to become more challenging, unless there\u2019s a very high level of trust between the customer and the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

Is there a cost advantage?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

All of us who know this industry, are well aware about the great Indian pyramid model.  With constant increase in IT\/ technology work from India,  the majority of this growth in the pyramid could not be sourced from other industries. [There have been exceptions - but the poaching from other industries contributed to only a small percentage]. With a 20x - 25x growth in head count over the last twenty years, the industry had to take fresh campus hires, train them and handle the growth that came their way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So if the industry hired 10K campus grads this year, it would be 12K next, 15K, 20K, 26K, 33K\u2026. and so on over the years. So if they came in as Programmers, the existing Programmers would move up to become Analysts, the Analysts would move up to Sr. Analysts and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With such a wonderful model, the Indian IT service industry was able to keep the cost fairly constant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you look at the captives (or insourced organization), they would have scaled up in the beginning rapidly. After that, they would have reached the peak head count. So invariably, there ability to add at the bottom of the pyramid would rapidly diminish. When that started to happen, they would slowly start move from the pyramid to a cylinder or even a diamond at times in the organizational shape. Any such model would result in a higher cost, compared to the pyramid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This could explain, why many an organization, found that a captive was not viable after a point of time. So they even sold them to the service providers \u2013  who were good as chiselling the diamonds and cylinders back to the pyramid!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, let\u2019s see what\u2019s the change that\u2019s happening? The breakneck speed of growth, is coming down, in the IT outsourcing services industry. So the addition of head count at the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing (though it\u2019s happening at the same level as the prior years and some times it could be a little lesser too.) The best indicator is the fact that the average age in the industry is steadily increasing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does this mean \u2013 the bottom of the pyramid is turning into a cylinder. Could it eventually become a diamond? This would eventually mean that the cost advantage of an outsourcing service provider is starting to move away (especially for those CIOs who have large teams - 1000+).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CIO now looks at the additional costs that the IT outsourcing vendor charges \u2013 for the vendors\u2019 Sales and Marketing, for their need to manage the contracts, for possibly keeping a bench, and the industry margin of say 20%. Why would she\/ he want to pay that any more. Would it be better for the CIO to spend a little more on his captive staff \u2013 which can help him in retaining and motivating them more\u2026 and still have some money saved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think, this value proposition is getting eroded slowly. So, this factor, in the case of large corporations, can start veering towards insourcing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what\u2019s the employee perspective?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Imagine, you are getting out of a Bombay suburban train at peak hour in Victoria Terminus (this would be like the time when the campus folks finish the graduation). All you had to do was stand in the right direction, and you would be moved along, with no effort (this was akin to just getting a decent performance in college and attending the right interview \u2013 you would land a job with an IT major).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then at the end of it, you were placed at the foot of an escalator (This is the bottom rung of the organizational pyramid). Just standing stable, you would progressive move up (akin to moving up the pyramid). If you were energetic, you could climb up a moving escalator (some of them who were on the fast track) and you reached the heights even quicker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, when you look at the growth the IT outsourcing industry went through in the last two decades it
was a no-brainer for many of them to join the service industry to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indian IT service model was simple and elegant (at least as long as it works). You hire a set of young college graduates, put them through a rigorous training. Soon they were enthusiastic to show their prowess at work at the entry level. They served a couple of years at the entry level. In the meanwhile, with the growth we saw, there were even more college graduates hired with every passing year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So everyone with 2 years experience, became a senior pro. Then those with 5+ literally started to manage the teams. At 10+ you were running large customers, multiple groups. The industry grew at over 20% CAGR for a good 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the IT service industry was able to absorb the huge growth, thanks to the large number of folks graduating from the colleges (even after all the issues with the quality of education, we still had a large enough population available). Because of the growth, the pyramid never changed it\u2019s composition. (We had the same ratio of the pyramid). At the same time, the growth was ensuring that the experienced folks were getting pitched into managing a team, then a project, a program, a customer\u2026 and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess that era is slowly fading away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it\u2019s moving to an era, where people are getting the opportunity to work on a focussed area. They have the time to make a difference. The measure of the pyramid that you manage, is starting to lose out as the driver. Also the risk of the folks in the middle of the IT services organization pyramid is increasing, rapidly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing that rapidly. The folks are starting to age longer at each level. So the opportunity is getting similar to the captive organizations. When captive organizations pay better (typically), and the opportunity for growth is getting similar \u2013 there\u2019s a case for employees to actively consider captive now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surges and spikes<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This will always exist as an opportunity. But, most large service providers \u2013 agree to do this, only because they see this as part of the bigger outsourcing opportunity, or see this as an opportunity to penetrate and capture the larger pie down stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise, this would turn back into the \u201cold body shopping\u201d business. Clearly the margins will be low in this business and the uncertainty of the opportunity would not make it attractive to the IT service providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However this opportunity will always exist for service providers. Whether it stays with the IT service providers or gets more actively filled through the manpower agencies, will be difficult to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s happening to contracts?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The opportunity for the contract was large \u2013 with the work that was needed to \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d. Additionally the traditional way of delivering \u2013 meant the scoping was done up front, so it was possible to price with a certain element of risk factored in. We saw the likes of TPI and others advice the customers on how to structure the contracts and SLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all the automation going on in the \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, the work is coming down rapidly. Yes, the margins are going up. This will still be an opportunity for the Indian IT outsourcing service providers, albeit a smaller business than earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when you look at the newer systems being developed \u2013 Agile and DevOps are becoming the way of life. In this approach, signing a contract with the price fixed is not practical. So increase in the overall program costs \u2013 whether attributable to the customers never ending change or the vendor actively abetting changes to \u201cdrive more revenue\u201d can become very debatable. So contracting in these cases is going to become more challenging, unless there\u2019s a very high level of trust between the customer and the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

So, given that the IT investments are significantly shifting to the differentiators \u2013 This factor favours insourcing predominantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is there a cost advantage?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

All of us who know this industry, are well aware about the great Indian pyramid model.  With constant increase in IT\/ technology work from India,  the majority of this growth in the pyramid could not be sourced from other industries. [There have been exceptions - but the poaching from other industries contributed to only a small percentage]. With a 20x - 25x growth in head count over the last twenty years, the industry had to take fresh campus hires, train them and handle the growth that came their way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So if the industry hired 10K campus grads this year, it would be 12K next, 15K, 20K, 26K, 33K\u2026. and so on over the years. So if they came in as Programmers, the existing Programmers would move up to become Analysts, the Analysts would move up to Sr. Analysts and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With such a wonderful model, the Indian IT service industry was able to keep the cost fairly constant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you look at the captives (or insourced organization), they would have scaled up in the beginning rapidly. After that, they would have reached the peak head count. So invariably, there ability to add at the bottom of the pyramid would rapidly diminish. When that started to happen, they would slowly start move from the pyramid to a cylinder or even a diamond at times in the organizational shape. Any such model would result in a higher cost, compared to the pyramid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This could explain, why many an organization, found that a captive was not viable after a point of time. So they even sold them to the service providers \u2013  who were good as chiselling the diamonds and cylinders back to the pyramid!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, let\u2019s see what\u2019s the change that\u2019s happening? The breakneck speed of growth, is coming down, in the IT outsourcing services industry. So the addition of head count at the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing (though it\u2019s happening at the same level as the prior years and some times it could be a little lesser too.) The best indicator is the fact that the average age in the industry is steadily increasing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does this mean \u2013 the bottom of the pyramid is turning into a cylinder. Could it eventually become a diamond? This would eventually mean that the cost advantage of an outsourcing service provider is starting to move away (especially for those CIOs who have large teams - 1000+).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CIO now looks at the additional costs that the IT outsourcing vendor charges \u2013 for the vendors\u2019 Sales and Marketing, for their need to manage the contracts, for possibly keeping a bench, and the industry margin of say 20%. Why would she\/ he want to pay that any more. Would it be better for the CIO to spend a little more on his captive staff \u2013 which can help him in retaining and motivating them more\u2026 and still have some money saved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think, this value proposition is getting eroded slowly. So, this factor, in the case of large corporations, can start veering towards insourcing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what\u2019s the employee perspective?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Imagine, you are getting out of a Bombay suburban train at peak hour in Victoria Terminus (this would be like the time when the campus folks finish the graduation). All you had to do was stand in the right direction, and you would be moved along, with no effort (this was akin to just getting a decent performance in college and attending the right interview \u2013 you would land a job with an IT major).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then at the end of it, you were placed at the foot of an escalator (This is the bottom rung of the organizational pyramid). Just standing stable, you would progressive move up (akin to moving up the pyramid). If you were energetic, you could climb up a moving escalator (some of them who were on the fast track) and you reached the heights even quicker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, when you look at the growth the IT outsourcing industry went through in the last two decades it
was a no-brainer for many of them to join the service industry to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indian IT service model was simple and elegant (at least as long as it works). You hire a set of young college graduates, put them through a rigorous training. Soon they were enthusiastic to show their prowess at work at the entry level. They served a couple of years at the entry level. In the meanwhile, with the growth we saw, there were even more college graduates hired with every passing year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So everyone with 2 years experience, became a senior pro. Then those with 5+ literally started to manage the teams. At 10+ you were running large customers, multiple groups. The industry grew at over 20% CAGR for a good 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the IT service industry was able to absorb the huge growth, thanks to the large number of folks graduating from the colleges (even after all the issues with the quality of education, we still had a large enough population available). Because of the growth, the pyramid never changed it\u2019s composition. (We had the same ratio of the pyramid). At the same time, the growth was ensuring that the experienced folks were getting pitched into managing a team, then a project, a program, a customer\u2026 and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess that era is slowly fading away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it\u2019s moving to an era, where people are getting the opportunity to work on a focussed area. They have the time to make a difference. The measure of the pyramid that you manage, is starting to lose out as the driver. Also the risk of the folks in the middle of the IT services organization pyramid is increasing, rapidly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing that rapidly. The folks are starting to age longer at each level. So the opportunity is getting similar to the captive organizations. When captive organizations pay better (typically), and the opportunity for growth is getting similar \u2013 there\u2019s a case for employees to actively consider captive now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surges and spikes<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This will always exist as an opportunity. But, most large service providers \u2013 agree to do this, only because they see this as part of the bigger outsourcing opportunity, or see this as an opportunity to penetrate and capture the larger pie down stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise, this would turn back into the \u201cold body shopping\u201d business. Clearly the margins will be low in this business and the uncertainty of the opportunity would not make it attractive to the IT service providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However this opportunity will always exist for service providers. Whether it stays with the IT service providers or gets more actively filled through the manpower agencies, will be difficult to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s happening to contracts?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The opportunity for the contract was large \u2013 with the work that was needed to \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d. Additionally the traditional way of delivering \u2013 meant the scoping was done up front, so it was possible to price with a certain element of risk factored in. We saw the likes of TPI and others advice the customers on how to structure the contracts and SLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all the automation going on in the \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, the work is coming down rapidly. Yes, the margins are going up. This will still be an opportunity for the Indian IT outsourcing service providers, albeit a smaller business than earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when you look at the newer systems being developed \u2013 Agile and DevOps are becoming the way of life. In this approach, signing a contract with the price fixed is not practical. So increase in the overall program costs \u2013 whether attributable to the customers never ending change or the vendor actively abetting changes to \u201cdrive more revenue\u201d can become very debatable. So contracting in these cases is going to become more challenging, unless there\u2019s a very high level of trust between the customer and the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

When it comes to System of Experience \u2013 whether it\u2019s your Marketing team going Digital, or if the business is shifting to As-A-Service model, or looking at social media and responding to the micro markets, on a real time basis \u2013 an organization could know this is the real differentiator.  So if you are building a true customer experience and want to manage it effectively as a differentiator \u2013 you are quite likely to not outsource it.  You want absolute control, minimal leak of knowledge to competition. However, you may need a help of some high-end experts who can help you plan, strategize and define these.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, given that the IT investments are significantly shifting to the differentiators \u2013 This factor favours insourcing predominantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is there a cost advantage?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

All of us who know this industry, are well aware about the great Indian pyramid model.  With constant increase in IT\/ technology work from India,  the majority of this growth in the pyramid could not be sourced from other industries. [There have been exceptions - but the poaching from other industries contributed to only a small percentage]. With a 20x - 25x growth in head count over the last twenty years, the industry had to take fresh campus hires, train them and handle the growth that came their way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So if the industry hired 10K campus grads this year, it would be 12K next, 15K, 20K, 26K, 33K\u2026. and so on over the years. So if they came in as Programmers, the existing Programmers would move up to become Analysts, the Analysts would move up to Sr. Analysts and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With such a wonderful model, the Indian IT service industry was able to keep the cost fairly constant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you look at the captives (or insourced organization), they would have scaled up in the beginning rapidly. After that, they would have reached the peak head count. So invariably, there ability to add at the bottom of the pyramid would rapidly diminish. When that started to happen, they would slowly start move from the pyramid to a cylinder or even a diamond at times in the organizational shape. Any such model would result in a higher cost, compared to the pyramid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This could explain, why many an organization, found that a captive was not viable after a point of time. So they even sold them to the service providers \u2013  who were good as chiselling the diamonds and cylinders back to the pyramid!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, let\u2019s see what\u2019s the change that\u2019s happening? The breakneck speed of growth, is coming down, in the IT outsourcing services industry. So the addition of head count at the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing (though it\u2019s happening at the same level as the prior years and some times it could be a little lesser too.) The best indicator is the fact that the average age in the industry is steadily increasing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does this mean \u2013 the bottom of the pyramid is turning into a cylinder. Could it eventually become a diamond? This would eventually mean that the cost advantage of an outsourcing service provider is starting to move away (especially for those CIOs who have large teams - 1000+).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CIO now looks at the additional costs that the IT outsourcing vendor charges \u2013 for the vendors\u2019 Sales and Marketing, for their need to manage the contracts, for possibly keeping a bench, and the industry margin of say 20%. Why would she\/ he want to pay that any more. Would it be better for the CIO to spend a little more on his captive staff \u2013 which can help him in retaining and motivating them more\u2026 and still have some money saved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think, this value proposition is getting eroded slowly. So, this factor, in the case of large corporations, can start veering towards insourcing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what\u2019s the employee perspective?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Imagine, you are getting out of a Bombay suburban train at peak hour in Victoria Terminus (this would be like the time when the campus folks finish the graduation). All you had to do was stand in the right direction, and you would be moved along, with no effort (this was akin to just getting a decent performance in college and attending the right interview \u2013 you would land a job with an IT major).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then at the end of it, you were placed at the foot of an escalator (This is the bottom rung of the organizational pyramid). Just standing stable, you would progressive move up (akin to moving up the pyramid). If you were energetic, you could climb up a moving escalator (some of them who were on the fast track) and you reached the heights even quicker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, when you look at the growth the IT outsourcing industry went through in the last two decades it
was a no-brainer for many of them to join the service industry to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indian IT service model was simple and elegant (at least as long as it works). You hire a set of young college graduates, put them through a rigorous training. Soon they were enthusiastic to show their prowess at work at the entry level. They served a couple of years at the entry level. In the meanwhile, with the growth we saw, there were even more college graduates hired with every passing year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So everyone with 2 years experience, became a senior pro. Then those with 5+ literally started to manage the teams. At 10+ you were running large customers, multiple groups. The industry grew at over 20% CAGR for a good 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the IT service industry was able to absorb the huge growth, thanks to the large number of folks graduating from the colleges (even after all the issues with the quality of education, we still had a large enough population available). Because of the growth, the pyramid never changed it\u2019s composition. (We had the same ratio of the pyramid). At the same time, the growth was ensuring that the experienced folks were getting pitched into managing a team, then a project, a program, a customer\u2026 and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess that era is slowly fading away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it\u2019s moving to an era, where people are getting the opportunity to work on a focussed area. They have the time to make a difference. The measure of the pyramid that you manage, is starting to lose out as the driver. Also the risk of the folks in the middle of the IT services organization pyramid is increasing, rapidly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing that rapidly. The folks are starting to age longer at each level. So the opportunity is getting similar to the captive organizations. When captive organizations pay better (typically), and the opportunity for growth is getting similar \u2013 there\u2019s a case for employees to actively consider captive now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surges and spikes<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This will always exist as an opportunity. But, most large service providers \u2013 agree to do this, only because they see this as part of the bigger outsourcing opportunity, or see this as an opportunity to penetrate and capture the larger pie down stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise, this would turn back into the \u201cold body shopping\u201d business. Clearly the margins will be low in this business and the uncertainty of the opportunity would not make it attractive to the IT service providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However this opportunity will always exist for service providers. Whether it stays with the IT service providers or gets more actively filled through the manpower agencies, will be difficult to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s happening to contracts?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The opportunity for the contract was large \u2013 with the work that was needed to \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d. Additionally the traditional way of delivering \u2013 meant the scoping was done up front, so it was possible to price with a certain element of risk factored in. We saw the likes of TPI and others advice the customers on how to structure the contracts and SLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all the automation going on in the \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, the work is coming down rapidly. Yes, the margins are going up. This will still be an opportunity for the Indian IT outsourcing service providers, albeit a smaller business than earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when you look at the newer systems being developed \u2013 Agile and DevOps are becoming the way of life. In this approach, signing a contract with the price fixed is not practical. So increase in the overall program costs \u2013 whether attributable to the customers never ending change or the vendor actively abetting changes to \u201cdrive more revenue\u201d can become very debatable. So contracting in these cases is going to become more challenging, unless there\u2019s a very high level of trust between the customer and the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

When it comes System of Engagement \u2013 each of them could have their own nuance. So, in a  CPG company, it may have specific ways in which the extended supply chain is working with a traditional retailer. like Wal-Mart in one way, and with an online retailer, like Amazon, in another way. This interaction could be dynamically changing. The CIO probably does not want those nuances out. There could be other systems like the  core CRM, where there\u2019s defined way of working, so it may be amenable to outsourcing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to System of Experience \u2013 whether it\u2019s your Marketing team going Digital, or if the business is shifting to As-A-Service model, or looking at social media and responding to the micro markets, on a real time basis \u2013 an organization could know this is the real differentiator.  So if you are building a true customer experience and want to manage it effectively as a differentiator \u2013 you are quite likely to not outsource it.  You want absolute control, minimal leak of knowledge to competition. However, you may need a help of some high-end experts who can help you plan, strategize and define these.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, given that the IT investments are significantly shifting to the differentiators \u2013 This factor favours insourcing predominantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is there a cost advantage?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

All of us who know this industry, are well aware about the great Indian pyramid model.  With constant increase in IT\/ technology work from India,  the majority of this growth in the pyramid could not be sourced from other industries. [There have been exceptions - but the poaching from other industries contributed to only a small percentage]. With a 20x - 25x growth in head count over the last twenty years, the industry had to take fresh campus hires, train them and handle the growth that came their way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So if the industry hired 10K campus grads this year, it would be 12K next, 15K, 20K, 26K, 33K\u2026. and so on over the years. So if they came in as Programmers, the existing Programmers would move up to become Analysts, the Analysts would move up to Sr. Analysts and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With such a wonderful model, the Indian IT service industry was able to keep the cost fairly constant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you look at the captives (or insourced organization), they would have scaled up in the beginning rapidly. After that, they would have reached the peak head count. So invariably, there ability to add at the bottom of the pyramid would rapidly diminish. When that started to happen, they would slowly start move from the pyramid to a cylinder or even a diamond at times in the organizational shape. Any such model would result in a higher cost, compared to the pyramid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This could explain, why many an organization, found that a captive was not viable after a point of time. So they even sold them to the service providers \u2013  who were good as chiselling the diamonds and cylinders back to the pyramid!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, let\u2019s see what\u2019s the change that\u2019s happening? The breakneck speed of growth, is coming down, in the IT outsourcing services industry. So the addition of head count at the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing (though it\u2019s happening at the same level as the prior years and some times it could be a little lesser too.) The best indicator is the fact that the average age in the industry is steadily increasing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does this mean \u2013 the bottom of the pyramid is turning into a cylinder. Could it eventually become a diamond? This would eventually mean that the cost advantage of an outsourcing service provider is starting to move away (especially for those CIOs who have large teams - 1000+).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CIO now looks at the additional costs that the IT outsourcing vendor charges \u2013 for the vendors\u2019 Sales and Marketing, for their need to manage the contracts, for possibly keeping a bench, and the industry margin of say 20%. Why would she\/ he want to pay that any more. Would it be better for the CIO to spend a little more on his captive staff \u2013 which can help him in retaining and motivating them more\u2026 and still have some money saved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think, this value proposition is getting eroded slowly. So, this factor, in the case of large corporations, can start veering towards insourcing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what\u2019s the employee perspective?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Imagine, you are getting out of a Bombay suburban train at peak hour in Victoria Terminus (this would be like the time when the campus folks finish the graduation). All you had to do was stand in the right direction, and you would be moved along, with no effort (this was akin to just getting a decent performance in college and attending the right interview \u2013 you would land a job with an IT major).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then at the end of it, you were placed at the foot of an escalator (This is the bottom rung of the organizational pyramid). Just standing stable, you would progressive move up (akin to moving up the pyramid). If you were energetic, you could climb up a moving escalator (some of them who were on the fast track) and you reached the heights even quicker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, when you look at the growth the IT outsourcing industry went through in the last two decades it
was a no-brainer for many of them to join the service industry to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indian IT service model was simple and elegant (at least as long as it works). You hire a set of young college graduates, put them through a rigorous training. Soon they were enthusiastic to show their prowess at work at the entry level. They served a couple of years at the entry level. In the meanwhile, with the growth we saw, there were even more college graduates hired with every passing year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So everyone with 2 years experience, became a senior pro. Then those with 5+ literally started to manage the teams. At 10+ you were running large customers, multiple groups. The industry grew at over 20% CAGR for a good 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the IT service industry was able to absorb the huge growth, thanks to the large number of folks graduating from the colleges (even after all the issues with the quality of education, we still had a large enough population available). Because of the growth, the pyramid never changed it\u2019s composition. (We had the same ratio of the pyramid). At the same time, the growth was ensuring that the experienced folks were getting pitched into managing a team, then a project, a program, a customer\u2026 and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess that era is slowly fading away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it\u2019s moving to an era, where people are getting the opportunity to work on a focussed area. They have the time to make a difference. The measure of the pyramid that you manage, is starting to lose out as the driver. Also the risk of the folks in the middle of the IT services organization pyramid is increasing, rapidly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing that rapidly. The folks are starting to age longer at each level. So the opportunity is getting similar to the captive organizations. When captive organizations pay better (typically), and the opportunity for growth is getting similar \u2013 there\u2019s a case for employees to actively consider captive now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surges and spikes<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This will always exist as an opportunity. But, most large service providers \u2013 agree to do this, only because they see this as part of the bigger outsourcing opportunity, or see this as an opportunity to penetrate and capture the larger pie down stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise, this would turn back into the \u201cold body shopping\u201d business. Clearly the margins will be low in this business and the uncertainty of the opportunity would not make it attractive to the IT service providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However this opportunity will always exist for service providers. Whether it stays with the IT service providers or gets more actively filled through the manpower agencies, will be difficult to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s happening to contracts?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The opportunity for the contract was large \u2013 with the work that was needed to \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d. Additionally the traditional way of delivering \u2013 meant the scoping was done up front, so it was possible to price with a certain element of risk factored in. We saw the likes of TPI and others advice the customers on how to structure the contracts and SLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all the automation going on in the \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, the work is coming down rapidly. Yes, the margins are going up. This will still be an opportunity for the Indian IT outsourcing service providers, albeit a smaller business than earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when you look at the newer systems being developed \u2013 Agile and DevOps are becoming the way of life. In this approach, signing a contract with the price fixed is not practical. So increase in the overall program costs \u2013 whether attributable to the customers never ending change or the vendor actively abetting changes to \u201cdrive more revenue\u201d can become very debatable. So contracting in these cases is going to become more challenging, unless there\u2019s a very high level of trust between the customer and the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n

The system of record is your core systems \u2013 be it your ERP, payroll, accounting et al\u2026 It could also be parts of some of the other systems, like CRM, SCM. If they are fairly clear and there\u2019s no major innovation going on in those systems, then quite likely there\u2019s a business case for outsourcing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes System of Engagement \u2013 each of them could have their own nuance. So, in a  CPG company, it may have specific ways in which the extended supply chain is working with a traditional retailer. like Wal-Mart in one way, and with an online retailer, like Amazon, in another way. This interaction could be dynamically changing. The CIO probably does not want those nuances out. There could be other systems like the  core CRM, where there\u2019s defined way of working, so it may be amenable to outsourcing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to System of Experience \u2013 whether it\u2019s your Marketing team going Digital, or if the business is shifting to As-A-Service model, or looking at social media and responding to the micro markets, on a real time basis \u2013 an organization could know this is the real differentiator.  So if you are building a true customer experience and want to manage it effectively as a differentiator \u2013 you are quite likely to not outsource it.  You want absolute control, minimal leak of knowledge to competition. However, you may need a help of some high-end experts who can help you plan, strategize and define these.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, given that the IT investments are significantly shifting to the differentiators \u2013 This factor favours insourcing predominantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is there a cost advantage?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

All of us who know this industry, are well aware about the great Indian pyramid model.  With constant increase in IT\/ technology work from India,  the majority of this growth in the pyramid could not be sourced from other industries. [There have been exceptions - but the poaching from other industries contributed to only a small percentage]. With a 20x - 25x growth in head count over the last twenty years, the industry had to take fresh campus hires, train them and handle the growth that came their way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So if the industry hired 10K campus grads this year, it would be 12K next, 15K, 20K, 26K, 33K\u2026. and so on over the years. So if they came in as Programmers, the existing Programmers would move up to become Analysts, the Analysts would move up to Sr. Analysts and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With such a wonderful model, the Indian IT service industry was able to keep the cost fairly constant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you look at the captives (or insourced organization), they would have scaled up in the beginning rapidly. After that, they would have reached the peak head count. So invariably, there ability to add at the bottom of the pyramid would rapidly diminish. When that started to happen, they would slowly start move from the pyramid to a cylinder or even a diamond at times in the organizational shape. Any such model would result in a higher cost, compared to the pyramid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This could explain, why many an organization, found that a captive was not viable after a point of time. So they even sold them to the service providers \u2013  who were good as chiselling the diamonds and cylinders back to the pyramid!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, let\u2019s see what\u2019s the change that\u2019s happening? The breakneck speed of growth, is coming down, in the IT outsourcing services industry. So the addition of head count at the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing (though it\u2019s happening at the same level as the prior years and some times it could be a little lesser too.) The best indicator is the fact that the average age in the industry is steadily increasing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does this mean \u2013 the bottom of the pyramid is turning into a cylinder. Could it eventually become a diamond? This would eventually mean that the cost advantage of an outsourcing service provider is starting to move away (especially for those CIOs who have large teams - 1000+).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CIO now looks at the additional costs that the IT outsourcing vendor charges \u2013 for the vendors\u2019 Sales and Marketing, for their need to manage the contracts, for possibly keeping a bench, and the industry margin of say 20%. Why would she\/ he want to pay that any more. Would it be better for the CIO to spend a little more on his captive staff \u2013 which can help him in retaining and motivating them more\u2026 and still have some money saved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think, this value proposition is getting eroded slowly. So, this factor, in the case of large corporations, can start veering towards insourcing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what\u2019s the employee perspective?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Imagine, you are getting out of a Bombay suburban train at peak hour in Victoria Terminus (this would be like the time when the campus folks finish the graduation). All you had to do was stand in the right direction, and you would be moved along, with no effort (this was akin to just getting a decent performance in college and attending the right interview \u2013 you would land a job with an IT major).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then at the end of it, you were placed at the foot of an escalator (This is the bottom rung of the organizational pyramid). Just standing stable, you would progressive move up (akin to moving up the pyramid). If you were energetic, you could climb up a moving escalator (some of them who were on the fast track) and you reached the heights even quicker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, when you look at the growth the IT outsourcing industry went through in the last two decades it
was a no-brainer for many of them to join the service industry to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indian IT service model was simple and elegant (at least as long as it works). You hire a set of young college graduates, put them through a rigorous training. Soon they were enthusiastic to show their prowess at work at the entry level. They served a couple of years at the entry level. In the meanwhile, with the growth we saw, there were even more college graduates hired with every passing year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So everyone with 2 years experience, became a senior pro. Then those with 5+ literally started to manage the teams. At 10+ you were running large customers, multiple groups. The industry grew at over 20% CAGR for a good 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the IT service industry was able to absorb the huge growth, thanks to the large number of folks graduating from the colleges (even after all the issues with the quality of education, we still had a large enough population available). Because of the growth, the pyramid never changed it\u2019s composition. (We had the same ratio of the pyramid). At the same time, the growth was ensuring that the experienced folks were getting pitched into managing a team, then a project, a program, a customer\u2026 and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess that era is slowly fading away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it\u2019s moving to an era, where people are getting the opportunity to work on a focussed area. They have the time to make a difference. The measure of the pyramid that you manage, is starting to lose out as the driver. Also the risk of the folks in the middle of the IT services organization pyramid is increasing, rapidly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing that rapidly. The folks are starting to age longer at each level. So the opportunity is getting similar to the captive organizations. When captive organizations pay better (typically), and the opportunity for growth is getting similar \u2013 there\u2019s a case for employees to actively consider captive now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surges and spikes<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This will always exist as an opportunity. But, most large service providers \u2013 agree to do this, only because they see this as part of the bigger outsourcing opportunity, or see this as an opportunity to penetrate and capture the larger pie down stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise, this would turn back into the \u201cold body shopping\u201d business. Clearly the margins will be low in this business and the uncertainty of the opportunity would not make it attractive to the IT service providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However this opportunity will always exist for service providers. Whether it stays with the IT service providers or gets more actively filled through the manpower agencies, will be difficult to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s happening to contracts?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The opportunity for the contract was large \u2013 with the work that was needed to \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d. Additionally the traditional way of delivering \u2013 meant the scoping was done up front, so it was possible to price with a certain element of risk factored in. We saw the likes of TPI and others advice the customers on how to structure the contracts and SLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all the automation going on in the \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, the work is coming down rapidly. Yes, the margins are going up. This will still be an opportunity for the Indian IT outsourcing service providers, albeit a smaller business than earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when you look at the newer systems being developed \u2013 Agile and DevOps are becoming the way of life. In this approach, signing a contract with the price fixed is not practical. So increase in the overall program costs \u2013 whether attributable to the customers never ending change or the vendor actively abetting changes to \u201cdrive more revenue\u201d can become very debatable. So contracting in these cases is going to become more challenging, unless there\u2019s a very high level of trust between the customer and the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

\"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CommPlan\"
Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

- Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

\n
  • System of Experience.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    The system of record is your core systems \u2013 be it your ERP, payroll, accounting et al\u2026 It could also be parts of some of the other systems, like CRM, SCM. If they are fairly clear and there\u2019s no major innovation going on in those systems, then quite likely there\u2019s a business case for outsourcing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When it comes System of Engagement \u2013 each of them could have their own nuance. So, in a  CPG company, it may have specific ways in which the extended supply chain is working with a traditional retailer. like Wal-Mart in one way, and with an online retailer, like Amazon, in another way. This interaction could be dynamically changing. The CIO probably does not want those nuances out. There could be other systems like the  core CRM, where there\u2019s defined way of working, so it may be amenable to outsourcing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When it comes to System of Experience \u2013 whether it\u2019s your Marketing team going Digital, or if the business is shifting to As-A-Service model, or looking at social media and responding to the micro markets, on a real time basis \u2013 an organization could know this is the real differentiator.  So if you are building a true customer experience and want to manage it effectively as a differentiator \u2013 you are quite likely to not outsource it.  You want absolute control, minimal leak of knowledge to competition. However, you may need a help of some high-end experts who can help you plan, strategize and define these.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So, given that the IT investments are significantly shifting to the differentiators \u2013 This factor favours insourcing predominantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Is there a cost advantage?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    All of us who know this industry, are well aware about the great Indian pyramid model.  With constant increase in IT\/ technology work from India,  the majority of this growth in the pyramid could not be sourced from other industries. [There have been exceptions - but the poaching from other industries contributed to only a small percentage]. With a 20x - 25x growth in head count over the last twenty years, the industry had to take fresh campus hires, train them and handle the growth that came their way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So if the industry hired 10K campus grads this year, it would be 12K next, 15K, 20K, 26K, 33K\u2026. and so on over the years. So if they came in as Programmers, the existing Programmers would move up to become Analysts, the Analysts would move up to Sr. Analysts and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    With such a wonderful model, the Indian IT service industry was able to keep the cost fairly constant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When you look at the captives (or insourced organization), they would have scaled up in the beginning rapidly. After that, they would have reached the peak head count. So invariably, there ability to add at the bottom of the pyramid would rapidly diminish. When that started to happen, they would slowly start move from the pyramid to a cylinder or even a diamond at times in the organizational shape. Any such model would result in a higher cost, compared to the pyramid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This could explain, why many an organization, found that a captive was not viable after a point of time. So they even sold them to the service providers \u2013  who were good as chiselling the diamonds and cylinders back to the pyramid!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Now, let\u2019s see what\u2019s the change that\u2019s happening? The breakneck speed of growth, is coming down, in the IT outsourcing services industry. So the addition of head count at the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing (though it\u2019s happening at the same level as the prior years and some times it could be a little lesser too.) The best indicator is the fact that the average age in the industry is steadily increasing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What does this mean \u2013 the bottom of the pyramid is turning into a cylinder. Could it eventually become a diamond? This would eventually mean that the cost advantage of an outsourcing service provider is starting to move away (especially for those CIOs who have large teams - 1000+).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The CIO now looks at the additional costs that the IT outsourcing vendor charges \u2013 for the vendors\u2019 Sales and Marketing, for their need to manage the contracts, for possibly keeping a bench, and the industry margin of say 20%. Why would she\/ he want to pay that any more. Would it be better for the CIO to spend a little more on his captive staff \u2013 which can help him in retaining and motivating them more\u2026 and still have some money saved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I think, this value proposition is getting eroded slowly. So, this factor, in the case of large corporations, can start veering towards insourcing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So, what\u2019s the employee perspective?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    Imagine, you are getting out of a Bombay suburban train at peak hour in Victoria Terminus (this would be like the time when the campus folks finish the graduation). All you had to do was stand in the right direction, and you would be moved along, with no effort (this was akin to just getting a decent performance in college and attending the right interview \u2013 you would land a job with an IT major).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Then at the end of it, you were placed at the foot of an escalator (This is the bottom rung of the organizational pyramid). Just standing stable, you would progressive move up (akin to moving up the pyramid). If you were energetic, you could climb up a moving escalator (some of them who were on the fast track) and you reached the heights even quicker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So, when you look at the growth the IT outsourcing industry went through in the last two decades it
    was a no-brainer for many of them to join the service industry to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The Indian IT service model was simple and elegant (at least as long as it works). You hire a set of young college graduates, put them through a rigorous training. Soon they were enthusiastic to show their prowess at work at the entry level. They served a couple of years at the entry level. In the meanwhile, with the growth we saw, there were even more college graduates hired with every passing year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So everyone with 2 years experience, became a senior pro. Then those with 5+ literally started to manage the teams. At 10+ you were running large customers, multiple groups. The industry grew at over 20% CAGR for a good 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So the IT service industry was able to absorb the huge growth, thanks to the large number of folks graduating from the colleges (even after all the issues with the quality of education, we still had a large enough population available). Because of the growth, the pyramid never changed it\u2019s composition. (We had the same ratio of the pyramid). At the same time, the growth was ensuring that the experienced folks were getting pitched into managing a team, then a project, a program, a customer\u2026 and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I guess that era is slowly fading away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So it\u2019s moving to an era, where people are getting the opportunity to work on a focussed area. They have the time to make a difference. The measure of the pyramid that you manage, is starting to lose out as the driver. Also the risk of the folks in the middle of the IT services organization pyramid is increasing, rapidly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Now the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing that rapidly. The folks are starting to age longer at each level. So the opportunity is getting similar to the captive organizations. When captive organizations pay better (typically), and the opportunity for growth is getting similar \u2013 there\u2019s a case for employees to actively consider captive now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Surges and spikes<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    This will always exist as an opportunity. But, most large service providers \u2013 agree to do this, only because they see this as part of the bigger outsourcing opportunity, or see this as an opportunity to penetrate and capture the larger pie down stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Otherwise, this would turn back into the \u201cold body shopping\u201d business. Clearly the margins will be low in this business and the uncertainty of the opportunity would not make it attractive to the IT service providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    However this opportunity will always exist for service providers. Whether it stays with the IT service providers or gets more actively filled through the manpower agencies, will be difficult to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What\u2019s happening to contracts?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    The opportunity for the contract was large \u2013 with the work that was needed to \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d. Additionally the traditional way of delivering \u2013 meant the scoping was done up front, so it was possible to price with a certain element of risk factored in. We saw the likes of TPI and others advice the customers on how to structure the contracts and SLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    With all the automation going on in the \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, the work is coming down rapidly. Yes, the margins are going up. This will still be an opportunity for the Indian IT outsourcing service providers, albeit a smaller business than earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    However, when you look at the newer systems being developed \u2013 Agile and DevOps are becoming the way of life. In this approach, signing a contract with the price fixed is not practical. So increase in the overall program costs \u2013 whether attributable to the customers never ending change or the vendor actively abetting changes to \u201cdrive more revenue\u201d can become very debatable. So contracting in these cases is going to become more challenging, unless there\u2019s a very high level of trust between the customer and the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n

    Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    \n

    As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

    \"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

    Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
    any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    [My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

    A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

    This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n

    2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

    Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

    Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"CommPlan\"
    Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

    I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    -  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

    \n
  • System of Engagement<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • System of Experience.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    The system of record is your core systems \u2013 be it your ERP, payroll, accounting et al\u2026 It could also be parts of some of the other systems, like CRM, SCM. If they are fairly clear and there\u2019s no major innovation going on in those systems, then quite likely there\u2019s a business case for outsourcing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When it comes System of Engagement \u2013 each of them could have their own nuance. So, in a  CPG company, it may have specific ways in which the extended supply chain is working with a traditional retailer. like Wal-Mart in one way, and with an online retailer, like Amazon, in another way. This interaction could be dynamically changing. The CIO probably does not want those nuances out. There could be other systems like the  core CRM, where there\u2019s defined way of working, so it may be amenable to outsourcing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When it comes to System of Experience \u2013 whether it\u2019s your Marketing team going Digital, or if the business is shifting to As-A-Service model, or looking at social media and responding to the micro markets, on a real time basis \u2013 an organization could know this is the real differentiator.  So if you are building a true customer experience and want to manage it effectively as a differentiator \u2013 you are quite likely to not outsource it.  You want absolute control, minimal leak of knowledge to competition. However, you may need a help of some high-end experts who can help you plan, strategize and define these.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So, given that the IT investments are significantly shifting to the differentiators \u2013 This factor favours insourcing predominantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Is there a cost advantage?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    All of us who know this industry, are well aware about the great Indian pyramid model.  With constant increase in IT\/ technology work from India,  the majority of this growth in the pyramid could not be sourced from other industries. [There have been exceptions - but the poaching from other industries contributed to only a small percentage]. With a 20x - 25x growth in head count over the last twenty years, the industry had to take fresh campus hires, train them and handle the growth that came their way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So if the industry hired 10K campus grads this year, it would be 12K next, 15K, 20K, 26K, 33K\u2026. and so on over the years. So if they came in as Programmers, the existing Programmers would move up to become Analysts, the Analysts would move up to Sr. Analysts and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    With such a wonderful model, the Indian IT service industry was able to keep the cost fairly constant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When you look at the captives (or insourced organization), they would have scaled up in the beginning rapidly. After that, they would have reached the peak head count. So invariably, there ability to add at the bottom of the pyramid would rapidly diminish. When that started to happen, they would slowly start move from the pyramid to a cylinder or even a diamond at times in the organizational shape. Any such model would result in a higher cost, compared to the pyramid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This could explain, why many an organization, found that a captive was not viable after a point of time. So they even sold them to the service providers \u2013  who were good as chiselling the diamonds and cylinders back to the pyramid!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Now, let\u2019s see what\u2019s the change that\u2019s happening? The breakneck speed of growth, is coming down, in the IT outsourcing services industry. So the addition of head count at the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing (though it\u2019s happening at the same level as the prior years and some times it could be a little lesser too.) The best indicator is the fact that the average age in the industry is steadily increasing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What does this mean \u2013 the bottom of the pyramid is turning into a cylinder. Could it eventually become a diamond? This would eventually mean that the cost advantage of an outsourcing service provider is starting to move away (especially for those CIOs who have large teams - 1000+).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The CIO now looks at the additional costs that the IT outsourcing vendor charges \u2013 for the vendors\u2019 Sales and Marketing, for their need to manage the contracts, for possibly keeping a bench, and the industry margin of say 20%. Why would she\/ he want to pay that any more. Would it be better for the CIO to spend a little more on his captive staff \u2013 which can help him in retaining and motivating them more\u2026 and still have some money saved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I think, this value proposition is getting eroded slowly. So, this factor, in the case of large corporations, can start veering towards insourcing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So, what\u2019s the employee perspective?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    Imagine, you are getting out of a Bombay suburban train at peak hour in Victoria Terminus (this would be like the time when the campus folks finish the graduation). All you had to do was stand in the right direction, and you would be moved along, with no effort (this was akin to just getting a decent performance in college and attending the right interview \u2013 you would land a job with an IT major).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Then at the end of it, you were placed at the foot of an escalator (This is the bottom rung of the organizational pyramid). Just standing stable, you would progressive move up (akin to moving up the pyramid). If you were energetic, you could climb up a moving escalator (some of them who were on the fast track) and you reached the heights even quicker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So, when you look at the growth the IT outsourcing industry went through in the last two decades it
    was a no-brainer for many of them to join the service industry to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The Indian IT service model was simple and elegant (at least as long as it works). You hire a set of young college graduates, put them through a rigorous training. Soon they were enthusiastic to show their prowess at work at the entry level. They served a couple of years at the entry level. In the meanwhile, with the growth we saw, there were even more college graduates hired with every passing year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So everyone with 2 years experience, became a senior pro. Then those with 5+ literally started to manage the teams. At 10+ you were running large customers, multiple groups. The industry grew at over 20% CAGR for a good 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So the IT service industry was able to absorb the huge growth, thanks to the large number of folks graduating from the colleges (even after all the issues with the quality of education, we still had a large enough population available). Because of the growth, the pyramid never changed it\u2019s composition. (We had the same ratio of the pyramid). At the same time, the growth was ensuring that the experienced folks were getting pitched into managing a team, then a project, a program, a customer\u2026 and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I guess that era is slowly fading away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So it\u2019s moving to an era, where people are getting the opportunity to work on a focussed area. They have the time to make a difference. The measure of the pyramid that you manage, is starting to lose out as the driver. Also the risk of the folks in the middle of the IT services organization pyramid is increasing, rapidly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Now the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing that rapidly. The folks are starting to age longer at each level. So the opportunity is getting similar to the captive organizations. When captive organizations pay better (typically), and the opportunity for growth is getting similar \u2013 there\u2019s a case for employees to actively consider captive now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Surges and spikes<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    This will always exist as an opportunity. But, most large service providers \u2013 agree to do this, only because they see this as part of the bigger outsourcing opportunity, or see this as an opportunity to penetrate and capture the larger pie down stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Otherwise, this would turn back into the \u201cold body shopping\u201d business. Clearly the margins will be low in this business and the uncertainty of the opportunity would not make it attractive to the IT service providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    However this opportunity will always exist for service providers. Whether it stays with the IT service providers or gets more actively filled through the manpower agencies, will be difficult to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What\u2019s happening to contracts?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    The opportunity for the contract was large \u2013 with the work that was needed to \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d. Additionally the traditional way of delivering \u2013 meant the scoping was done up front, so it was possible to price with a certain element of risk factored in. We saw the likes of TPI and others advice the customers on how to structure the contracts and SLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    With all the automation going on in the \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, the work is coming down rapidly. Yes, the margins are going up. This will still be an opportunity for the Indian IT outsourcing service providers, albeit a smaller business than earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    However, when you look at the newer systems being developed \u2013 Agile and DevOps are becoming the way of life. In this approach, signing a contract with the price fixed is not practical. So increase in the overall program costs \u2013 whether attributable to the customers never ending change or the vendor actively abetting changes to \u201cdrive more revenue\u201d can become very debatable. So contracting in these cases is going to become more challenging, unless there\u2019s a very high level of trust between the customer and the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n

    Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    \n

    As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

    \"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

    Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
    any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    [My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

    A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

    This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n

    2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

    Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

    Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"CommPlan\"
    Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

    I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    -  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

    \n
  • System of Record<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • System of Engagement<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • System of Experience.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    The system of record is your core systems \u2013 be it your ERP, payroll, accounting et al\u2026 It could also be parts of some of the other systems, like CRM, SCM. If they are fairly clear and there\u2019s no major innovation going on in those systems, then quite likely there\u2019s a business case for outsourcing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When it comes System of Engagement \u2013 each of them could have their own nuance. So, in a  CPG company, it may have specific ways in which the extended supply chain is working with a traditional retailer. like Wal-Mart in one way, and with an online retailer, like Amazon, in another way. This interaction could be dynamically changing. The CIO probably does not want those nuances out. There could be other systems like the  core CRM, where there\u2019s defined way of working, so it may be amenable to outsourcing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When it comes to System of Experience \u2013 whether it\u2019s your Marketing team going Digital, or if the business is shifting to As-A-Service model, or looking at social media and responding to the micro markets, on a real time basis \u2013 an organization could know this is the real differentiator.  So if you are building a true customer experience and want to manage it effectively as a differentiator \u2013 you are quite likely to not outsource it.  You want absolute control, minimal leak of knowledge to competition. However, you may need a help of some high-end experts who can help you plan, strategize and define these.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So, given that the IT investments are significantly shifting to the differentiators \u2013 This factor favours insourcing predominantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Is there a cost advantage?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    All of us who know this industry, are well aware about the great Indian pyramid model.  With constant increase in IT\/ technology work from India,  the majority of this growth in the pyramid could not be sourced from other industries. [There have been exceptions - but the poaching from other industries contributed to only a small percentage]. With a 20x - 25x growth in head count over the last twenty years, the industry had to take fresh campus hires, train them and handle the growth that came their way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So if the industry hired 10K campus grads this year, it would be 12K next, 15K, 20K, 26K, 33K\u2026. and so on over the years. So if they came in as Programmers, the existing Programmers would move up to become Analysts, the Analysts would move up to Sr. Analysts and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    With such a wonderful model, the Indian IT service industry was able to keep the cost fairly constant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When you look at the captives (or insourced organization), they would have scaled up in the beginning rapidly. After that, they would have reached the peak head count. So invariably, there ability to add at the bottom of the pyramid would rapidly diminish. When that started to happen, they would slowly start move from the pyramid to a cylinder or even a diamond at times in the organizational shape. Any such model would result in a higher cost, compared to the pyramid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This could explain, why many an organization, found that a captive was not viable after a point of time. So they even sold them to the service providers \u2013  who were good as chiselling the diamonds and cylinders back to the pyramid!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Now, let\u2019s see what\u2019s the change that\u2019s happening? The breakneck speed of growth, is coming down, in the IT outsourcing services industry. So the addition of head count at the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing (though it\u2019s happening at the same level as the prior years and some times it could be a little lesser too.) The best indicator is the fact that the average age in the industry is steadily increasing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What does this mean \u2013 the bottom of the pyramid is turning into a cylinder. Could it eventually become a diamond? This would eventually mean that the cost advantage of an outsourcing service provider is starting to move away (especially for those CIOs who have large teams - 1000+).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The CIO now looks at the additional costs that the IT outsourcing vendor charges \u2013 for the vendors\u2019 Sales and Marketing, for their need to manage the contracts, for possibly keeping a bench, and the industry margin of say 20%. Why would she\/ he want to pay that any more. Would it be better for the CIO to spend a little more on his captive staff \u2013 which can help him in retaining and motivating them more\u2026 and still have some money saved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I think, this value proposition is getting eroded slowly. So, this factor, in the case of large corporations, can start veering towards insourcing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So, what\u2019s the employee perspective?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    Imagine, you are getting out of a Bombay suburban train at peak hour in Victoria Terminus (this would be like the time when the campus folks finish the graduation). All you had to do was stand in the right direction, and you would be moved along, with no effort (this was akin to just getting a decent performance in college and attending the right interview \u2013 you would land a job with an IT major).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Then at the end of it, you were placed at the foot of an escalator (This is the bottom rung of the organizational pyramid). Just standing stable, you would progressive move up (akin to moving up the pyramid). If you were energetic, you could climb up a moving escalator (some of them who were on the fast track) and you reached the heights even quicker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So, when you look at the growth the IT outsourcing industry went through in the last two decades it
    was a no-brainer for many of them to join the service industry to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The Indian IT service model was simple and elegant (at least as long as it works). You hire a set of young college graduates, put them through a rigorous training. Soon they were enthusiastic to show their prowess at work at the entry level. They served a couple of years at the entry level. In the meanwhile, with the growth we saw, there were even more college graduates hired with every passing year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So everyone with 2 years experience, became a senior pro. Then those with 5+ literally started to manage the teams. At 10+ you were running large customers, multiple groups. The industry grew at over 20% CAGR for a good 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So the IT service industry was able to absorb the huge growth, thanks to the large number of folks graduating from the colleges (even after all the issues with the quality of education, we still had a large enough population available). Because of the growth, the pyramid never changed it\u2019s composition. (We had the same ratio of the pyramid). At the same time, the growth was ensuring that the experienced folks were getting pitched into managing a team, then a project, a program, a customer\u2026 and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I guess that era is slowly fading away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So it\u2019s moving to an era, where people are getting the opportunity to work on a focussed area. They have the time to make a difference. The measure of the pyramid that you manage, is starting to lose out as the driver. Also the risk of the folks in the middle of the IT services organization pyramid is increasing, rapidly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Now the bottom of the pyramid is not increasing that rapidly. The folks are starting to age longer at each level. So the opportunity is getting similar to the captive organizations. When captive organizations pay better (typically), and the opportunity for growth is getting similar \u2013 there\u2019s a case for employees to actively consider captive now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Surges and spikes<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    This will always exist as an opportunity. But, most large service providers \u2013 agree to do this, only because they see this as part of the bigger outsourcing opportunity, or see this as an opportunity to penetrate and capture the larger pie down stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Otherwise, this would turn back into the \u201cold body shopping\u201d business. Clearly the margins will be low in this business and the uncertainty of the opportunity would not make it attractive to the IT service providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    However this opportunity will always exist for service providers. Whether it stays with the IT service providers or gets more actively filled through the manpower agencies, will be difficult to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What\u2019s happening to contracts?<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    The opportunity for the contract was large \u2013 with the work that was needed to \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d. Additionally the traditional way of delivering \u2013 meant the scoping was done up front, so it was possible to price with a certain element of risk factored in. We saw the likes of TPI and others advice the customers on how to structure the contracts and SLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    With all the automation going on in the \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, the work is coming down rapidly. Yes, the margins are going up. This will still be an opportunity for the Indian IT outsourcing service providers, albeit a smaller business than earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    However, when you look at the newer systems being developed \u2013 Agile and DevOps are becoming the way of life. In this approach, signing a contract with the price fixed is not practical. So increase in the overall program costs \u2013 whether attributable to the customers never ending change or the vendor actively abetting changes to \u201cdrive more revenue\u201d can become very debatable. So contracting in these cases is going to become more challenging, unless there\u2019s a very high level of trust between the customer and the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Disruptors to the IT Service Majors<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    Nothing is permanent. It\u2019s more true in the IT\/ Tech industry. The Indian IT service industry for too long has worked the pyramid out. It has been good at continuous improvement, but the question of break though innovation has always eluded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    However, with a whole range of next generation start up making their presence felt, there\u2019s every possibility of these focussed niche players disrupting the IT service majors. These organization are small, nimble, focussed with few people. So, when they bring their solution to bear on a customer\u2019s need \u2013 they are quite likely to significantly alter the business of the traditional IT service majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    Unlike the earlier occasion, this time around the challenges of a resurgent insourced captive is definitely high. The savvy CIO, could insource \u201cthe future\u201d of his business into his captive organization. At the same time the CIO could still leave the legacy work with the service provider, till such time it\u2019s ready for a sunset. Or for that matter, could still use a IT service provider for \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d business, after automating and reducing the recurring spend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    With newer ways of working \u2013 Agile and DevOps, running a captive could potentially make it more easier and aligned for the CIO.  If a few of the CIOs get their strategy and execution right early on, the trend could pick up momentum thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Also the next generation start up companies are already becoming visible. By their sheer daring and break through solution, some of them are already getting embraced by the CIOs. Every one of these, will definitely make a dent on the IT service providers. Employees are starting to embrace \u201cvalue\u201d in the work as a measure of growth, rather than \u201cthe size of the pyramid\u201d they command!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Just relying on past history, could make them also a part of history soon. Or just giving a positive \u201cspin\u201d about the advantages of outsourcing, which has worked in the past may not work. Nor the fear of the past captive entity issues, will suffice \u2013 in the changing world. Nor is the fear of the unknown brand \u2013 with the next generation start up going to sway many a CIO, who sees disruption as the better alternative to the slow and steady change of the service provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This time around the Indian IT service industry is no longer small, to make a quick about turn. It has become a very large ship. So the effort to change is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n

    Yes, Indian IT service industry has done a wonderful job. It has probably accomplished more than any other industry in a short period of time. At the same time, yesterday is already history. So the need to relook at the paradigm for success is paramount.  The change is going to rear its head rapidly without a lead time. It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to seriously rework their strategy and execution to succeed in the changing world. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    \n

    As far as the insourcing trend is concerned, on the face of it - the strategy definitely looks good, based on the reviewed parameters. The key lies in ensuring that execution stays aligned with the intent of the strategy. Otherwise, it could turn out into a costly exercise of moving back and forth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    It\u2019s time for the IT service providers to see how they can pro-actively address this emerging trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Whichever side of the fence, you are \u2013 how do you see the future evolving? What are the risks on either side? Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Insourcing \u2013 Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"insourcing-is-it-a-real-threat-to-the-indian-it-service-industry-now","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3497","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3471,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-28 18:13:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-28 12:43:00","post_content":"\n

    \"good<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There\u2019s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it\u2019s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. When managers cook food for the employees \u2013 it just shows that the manager cares for the team. Absolutely at the symbolic level. It could be a demonstration of the intent. What happens after that \u2013 when you work \u2026 I believe that is where it matters. Or the day when the managers put up a fancy dress show, or do a cat walk. Wow! it gives employees something to talk and have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I am not belittling these visible and small little things. They bring relief in the workplace. They make the team feel closer to the manager. They are at best enablers to the eventual outcome.  To me the true show of this is when your manager does what can impact your career positively; what can propel you to do your best and not just be content with what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When someone argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When someone looks at you to be the decider on continuing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When someone let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Here I am sharing with you some real life stories of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The story of an imposing customer<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    This was the early days of a small company. We had just begun our operations. We had ramped up our team. I was part of the senior management team running this entity. We were actively scouting for customers. Our frontline started to have a dialog with a reasonably large financial services company in the US east coast region. Every month, it looked like the deal with the customer was imminent that month. However, the process of proposing and wooing this company went on for nearly six months.  Finally we get our entry. It was a great feeling that we had finally won over this customer\u2019s business. It was small to start with \u2013 but nevertheless, we had a customer. We were confident that with good services we will be able to soon scale up. I was the lead from the delivery organization on this deal. Our CEO and MD had stated that he was always available for them should they need him.  [I have seen this ritual in all places almost all the time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In all engagements, at the outset, there are bound to be a few small issues (that happen despite your best effort). Most of the customers don\u2019t make too much of it, if your overall service is good. They are sorted out in your operational meetings. Those meetings normally happen between the managers at both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The VP here wanted to get involved in the operational meetings. Soon every small little detail was getting blown out of proportion. He wanted to have a call on every issue with the CEO. After the first few calls it became a real challenge. His argument was simple \u2013 look my organization is a couple of 1000 times bigger than yours. So what better work would your CEO have other than attending to me as a customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    One day my MD pulled me aside, when I went to work in the morning. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me did I find this customer to be a pain in the rear. I said \u201cSB, there are challenges. They are not used to working in this model. The VP is paranoid that his team may let the vendor go off in a tangent. So he\u2019s pushing for everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d SB thought I was being polite and diplomatic. He told me, he was ready to pull the plug on this customer and let them go. He said look it\u2019s not your fault or your teams \u2013 these guys are just making it too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Surprised, but felt happy that my MD was willing to let go off the business for the sake of his team not getting harassed. I told \u201cSB thank you for your understanding. At this point, I have spent 6 months to get this customer. I am not going to quit now. Let\u2019s stay put. I am hopeful in a few weeks things will settle down.\u201d SB told me, \u201cIf that\u2019s how you want it, I will support you. But if you find this becoming unbearable at any time \u2013 I am ready to pull the plug on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In fact this support motivated me more to ensure that I had to retain this customer. My hunch proved right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Two months later, things had settled down. We continued to service this customer for several years thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    To me SB was truly a leader. A manager who was willing to work for his team. This is true people care, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When my manager made me his equal<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    I was looking after this new unit in this organization. It was challenging, as we were getting into a new market. My group was not that big. The business was relatively small compared to some of my peers, who had been running their groups for several years. When it was appraisal time, my manager WA stated that we had done a good job in challenging circumstances. However, we had to break out to be declared as outperforming. It was a fair assessment in my perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Soon a couple of quarters later, there was an opening in the organization which was at the same level as my manager. This job would be reporting directly to my manager\u2019s manager. My manager called me and said I should give it a fair try. I was pleasantly surprised to see him advise me to do that. I did apply for the job. I was interviewed along with a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Then it was time for getting the current manager\u2019s input. My manager had vehemently put forward my case. He felt I had all the potential to be in that level. He argued that my recent rating cannot be used as a valid input to make the decision \u2013 as I was getting to start up a new group, where as the others were having businesses that had run for years. He was persuasive enough, I take it. (I found this out later).  Soon enough I got promoted and a seat at the same table as my manager WA. [That\u2019s when our manager, WA and mine \u2013 told me that WA was the biggest champion for my promotion.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I have over the years seen most people enable promotion of people when they are two levels down to come one level below them. I have never ever seen people putting up the story for someone who\u2019s reporting to them to become a peer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    To me WA was truly a leader. A manager who was going to look at his team member\u2019s career first, rather than look at whether he becomes his peer. This is true people care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This enabled me to ensure about six people in my career through the same process. I have either actively supported their movement to be a peer or have been instrumental to get them up to the slot. That\u2019s my way of communicating my thank you to WA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When I took a contra-position to my manager<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    I had a manager MB, who was quick on his feet. Would look at the macro picture to make a call. He was never into details. In a way we were complementary in our approaches. We were in a matrix organization. I was involved in a major outsourcing pursuit. Things were constantly changing and to somebody who looked at the pursuit from outside, it would appear to be an exercise in futility. In fact, I would state that I also felt that a significant part of it was an exercise in futility. However there was a part of it running into hundreds of millions of dollar which I thought was worthwhile to pursue. Given the size of this opportunity the pursuit was long drawn out, running into several quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    During one of our reviews MB expressed his perspective on this pursuit. It would not be worth it. I agreed that there were parts of the pursuit, which are not worth pursuing. I then tried to reason about the part of the business where I felt we had a good opportunity. He was extremely sceptical, pursuing any part of it. I wanted to continue the pursuit. He said Srini if you wish to do it, go ahead. I will not prevent you from doing it. Let\u2019s discuss this in a couple of months from now. He was sure that I would also be concluding the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the meanwhile we even went through an appraisal process. I was pleasantly surprised that he gave me top billing given the fact that I had taken a different stance than what he wanted. I had over the years, in principle, never questioned any of my manager\u2019s appraisal rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The good part \u2013 my detailed investigation into the opportunity proved right. We started to actively pursue the part I was keen in, and the others were dropped. Sometime later we won the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What was good was the fact that MB never operated as my manager. He operated almost as a peer. He allowed me to take and pursue the decision that I believed in (and he did not believe in). He always trusted my eye for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    To me MB was a true leader. When you are a senior pro, the way your manager respects your view point becomes very important. This is true people care in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The 2% Masala effect<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    There\u2019s a lot of talk about servant leadership. There\u2019s a lot more noise about managers need to care for people.  Sometimes I see it as a clich\u00e9. I have seen many of them doing the superficial things \u2013 going out for a lunch with the team, or joining them in a pot-luck, putting up a fashion show by the managers. I call them superficial  - because they are all useful on the surface. But they really need to be followed through with the true things that help people make a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I believe in all the three instances I have narrated, my managers played a positive role in my career. To me these managers worked\/ supported me \u2013 not necessarily on the days when there was sunshine. They did it in tough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When \u201csomeone\u201d argues your case, isn\u2019t that person working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d looks at you to be the decider on doing or exiting the business \u2013 does it feel like that person is working for you? When \u201csomeone\u201d let you to override what they believe is right, don\u2019t you feel you are the person-in-charge? In my case \u201cthat someone\u201d happened to be my manager!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Sometimes employees look for outcome as the way of measuring a manager. I believe that\u2019s inappropriate too. Take the case of my manager WA \u2013 what impacted me more was not the fact that I got promoted but the fact that he worked to get me a seat at the same table that he was in. This was helpful, when I could do it to some of the managers who worked for me. Employees tend to look at a bonus, promo or the increment as a definition of people care. I am not saying they are unimportant. They are after all the outcomes. But I would prefer a manager who enables you to reach the outcome by yourself than gets you the outcome you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What is the type of manager you would prefer? Whom would you call as a caring manager? What do you think of these 3 managers of mine? Do you have any interesting comments to make? Do you have any stories to share?<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-worked-for-me","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:43","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3471","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3489,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-27 13:17:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-27 07:47:00","post_content":"\n

    Most of us who have grown up in India, would have definitely grown up knowing the great Indian epic Mahabharatha. Are there parallels between what happened in  Mahabharatha and in today\u2019s corporate world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Are there learnings from Mahabharatha that are applicable in today\u2019s work place? Or do we inappropriately apply them and claim that we have only applied the principles from time immemorial?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Skip this part if you are aware of Mahabharatha<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    Mahabharatha is too big an Indian epic to cover in totality. The gist of it is below (with regard to this blog).  There were two sets of cousins \u2013 Kauravas and Pandavas. There were 100 brothers in the Kaurava clan. There were 5 brothers in the Pandava clan (Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The differences between them reached the climax and the mother of all battles was called for between the Kauravas and Pandavas. There were innumerable number of wrong acts committed by the Kauravas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    They were all trained by the same teacher (guru) Dhronacharya.  When war was called, Dhronacharya decided to participate in the war on behalf of the Kauravas. His battlefield skills were exemplary and he could not be defeated in the normal course. He however knew that he was fighting on behalf of the unethical group, but was constrained to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas was known to be the upholder of truth and integrity. In the face of even the most difficult circumstances, he had never lied. He had a clear 100% record of being truthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, took part in the war \u2013 not in a battlefield role, but as a charioteer for Arjuna and a guide for the Pandavas. His goal was to ensure that eventually what\u2019s good for humanity will win over the bad forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Dhronacharya\u2019s son Ashwathamma was blessed to be immortal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    We are in the middle of the war, when this event happens\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the Mahabharatha battlefield<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    The Pandavas and Krishna were well aware that as long as Dhronacharya was armed and alive, there was no way they could defeat the Kauravas. During the planning for the next day\u2019s battle \u2013 Krishna makes it clear to Yudhistra that he has to make the call \u2013 what\u2019s more important to him \u2013 his personal track record of integrity or the bigger cause of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Bhima, a Pandava brother, slays an elephant (named Ashwathamma) and cries out loudly in the audible range of Dhronacharya that he had killed Ashwathamma. Guru Dhronacharya does not believe him, as he\u2019s aware that his son has been blessed with immortality. He knows Yudhistra will never lie (even when he\u2019s fighting against him). So he goes out to Yudhistra and asks him to confirm the killing of  Ashwathamma. Yudhistra, with a sense of anguish,  then replies \u201cAshwathamma hathaha (and mutters inaudibly kunjaraha)\u201d. [Translated from Sanskrit into English \u2013 \u201cAshwathamma (mutters inaudibly, the elephant) is killed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    On hearing Yudhistra say that, Dhronacharya drops his weapons on the battlefield and gets into a state of penance. He\u2019s immediately killed \u2013 as he\u2019s unarmed. The war now takes a decisive turn in favour of Pandavas. Krishna was after all guiding the forces that would uphold humanity and hence anyone who actively supported the other cause, had to die, as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Did Yudhistra do the right thing? Did he violate his own values? Did he mislead his guru Dhronacharya by muttering the key word inaudibly? Or did Yudhistra do the right thing by standing up for the larger cause of helping humanity \u2013 by helping bring the fight against the bad forces to a closure? Was it Dhronacharya\u2019s mistake in relying on his opponent for getting to know what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    My first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    One day my GM, VS called me to his table. He told me that there was a new opportunity coming up in Africa. I had to go and demo our product. I had to leave the customer convinced that we had a good product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This product was developed in three waves \u2013 The Wave 1 modules (which was the core and the basic services) had an user interface that was obsolete even in that generation. The Wave 2 modules \u2013 were not state of the art, but neither obsolete. The Wave 3 modules \u2013 were designed to be state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    VS told me that the customer, to begin with is interested in the Wave 1 modules only. I said \u201cVS, you know that Wave 1 is not worth talking about. You still want me to leave the customer satisfied that it\u2019s worthwhile. How can we do this?\u201d (My conscience was working on me). VS said \u201cSrini, I know it well. MA is the leader who will come with you. He will do the majority of the talking with the customer. However it\u2019s your job to leave the customer convinced that this product is good for him.\u201d He then added, \u201cSrini, you know it\u2019s only Phase 1. The customer will soon follow through with implementing the other modules \u2013 which you know are absolutely good. Also this will open up a new market for us.\u201d  I nodded. I knew that the other modules were really good and valuable to the customer. I told VS \u201cI am not comfortable doing this. However, I will do my best. I want to speak to MA and need his agreement on how we go about.\u201d VS sighed a relief (I guess he felt happy that I was convinced  - though I felt it was my duty and was not personally convinced).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This was how MA and I orchestrated the show on the D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I started with the transaction XXIN. I input the values and explained to the customer what I was doing. I told them that this was a transaction that should be rejected. At that point MA, casually came in front of the screen and started speaking to the customers, keeping them engaged. (Note \u2013 The system actually accepted all inputs, with no validation except for numeric values. So you had to go to another transaction to see if what you input was an accepted transaction or rejected! Well a long bygone era isn\u2019t it!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the meanwhile I quickly cleared and moved to the transaction XXER. It had displayed the transaction back with an error code. I still remember the code vividly \u2013 it was 007! (Note this screen would not display the actual error in the information. It only gave a code. So you had to have the Codes Manual open to decipher the error in the transaction. Now you can understand why I was uncomfortable to say that it was a good system!!). I had the Codes Manual opened on the page that was showing up 007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    At this stage my good friend MA, walked away as if he was holding up the demo. I had everything lined up and showed the customer the error with the Code Manual in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I heaved a sigh of relief \u2013 when I could handle all the customer queries and the customer did not realize all that behind the scene act! I had completed my first \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Having completed the Wave 1 part of the demo, I did demo a part of the Wave 2 \u2013 saying what the future implementation was like. This time I did it without a skipping a beat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Was I right in over-riding what my conscience told me was clearly an obsolete module as something of value to the customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Did I do it right, because after all it was for the larger cause of the customer getting into automated systems and this was a small price he had to pay at the beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Was I right in orchestrating that  with MA? Or did I deliberately mislead the customer? Or was it the customer\u2019s issue that he did not bother to notice the changes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    My colleagues in Europe had worked with a customer to close a good business opportunity. Initially we were in the pole position, and almost getting into a sole source state. That\u2019s
    any sales person\u2019s delight. However, some complacency on the part of my European colleagues soon resulted in a competitor jumping in. A couple of more mis-steps by them further resulted in the customer now pushing us on par with the other vendor! In 45 days we managed to mess up a good opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The sales lady had called me up to say that we need to host the customer. I was looking forward to it. On the day of the visit, the sales lady and the regional sales director landed up an hour before the customer came in. I got the low down on what had happened in the last 45 days, only then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I said we will do our best. After all over the years I have hosted several hundred (maybe around a thousand plus) visits. My team and I rallied around with a quick tweaked plan for the day, after I had heard the sales folks. [Another blog on the visit itself, sometime].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Well, we had won over the customer, by the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    A couple of weeks later, the customer told the sales director and the sales lady that he was willing to do the deal. There was one commitment he wanted. He wanted me to personally be fully dedicated for delivering the deal. The account team created a structure with my name straight and centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I was surprised. I am running the business unit. So I have the ultimate accountability for what my managers and their team delivers. I am not shying away from that for sure.  However, I told the sales lady it was not a fair representation to the customer. I reminded her that it was my team that made the visit successful. Yes, I was the orchestrator. But the symphony for the day was delivered flawlessly by my team. So we need to trust my team to deliver eventually too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The regional sales director and the sales lady said \u201cSrini, I understand what you are saying. You and your team turned it around. Please understand this customer is not going to sign, if we don\u2019t have you present as the person-in-charge. We don\u2019t want a slip between the cup and the lip ,do we!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The sales lady said \u201clook, once the delivery starts you are not going to be on the hook for everything daily.\u201d But, I don\u2019t think anyone would have interpreted the org chart for delivery that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So in the call with the customer, the customer asked if I was in. I said I was committed fully to the opportunity and would take full accountability for my manager and team. [Well, I interpreted it as follows \u2013 As the business unit head, I am accountable for everything that my managers and the team does.  I would do everything to make them successful.] The customer, most likely, interpreted that I was now going to be \u201cfull time\u201d committed to this delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I could not with all my conscience say yes to the full-time committed. So did I mislead the customer deliberately with the choice of my words \u2013 \u201cfully committed\u201d instead of \u201cfull-time committed\u201d?  To me this was another \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If the customer did not clarify that, was it my mistake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Or as I always believed that I was eventually accountable for what my manager and their teams delivered, so I met the broader objective of the customer isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    Did the Mahabharatha tell  us that while personal values are important, it can be sacrificed for a larger cause?. However, when confronted with a larger purpose (beyond the need for oneself), should we do things that make the larger cause successful, even if you have to sacrifice your personal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna was there to remind them of the true larger purpose. Who\u2019s there in our corporate world, who truly reminds us of the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    How would you define the larger purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Can the wrong application of the larger purpose \u2013 quickly degenerate into something that\u2019s self-serving (may be a group of people or an organization!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So what\u2019s ethical then? Where does your personal values come in? Where does the larger cause come in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    [My sincere apologies to those of you who are not exposed to Mahabharatha. My abbreviation of Mahabharatha does not do true justice to the epic. So you may not be able to sometimes understand the entire picture of the  Mahabharatha\u2013  to compare and contrast.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    IMHO, you should not drop your personal values. If the \u201cvalue system\u201d of the larger cause is truly higher than your personal values, there could be a need for you to accept that. However, we have to be guarded against using this argument frequently or to our convenience.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Mahabharatha @ Work: My \u201cAshwathamma Hathaha Kunjaraha\u201d moment","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"mahabharatha-work-my-ashwathamma-hathaha-kunjaraha-moment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:02:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3489","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3709,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-08-14 09:57:18","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-14 04:27:18","post_content":"\n

    A frequent question or topic of discussion with Scrum Masters, in course of coaching, is on motivation. How does one motivate the team members? A difficult question, which does not have \"a\" right answer\/ approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As a leader, one needs to deliver what is expected of him or her, this delivery is done by the team, a capable and motivated team is a necessity. So a leader needs to deliver, as well as grow and nurture the team to be capable and motivated. The better the team is, the better he or she can deliver. Internalizing of this truth, by the leader helps significantly, as all of the actions will be emanating from this inner thought\/ belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What motivates a person, will vary from person to person and the leader should be able to gauge that or elicit that. At times the leader may not be in a position to meet\/fullfil those needs, nevertheless keeping the following aspects in mind helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    There is a book by Daniel Pink, DRiVE<\/a> and he talks about what what motivates people and one may find that surprising. The factors are Autonomy<\/strong>, Mastery<\/strong> and Purpose<\/strong>. There are short and crisp videos of this concept available, click the video grab above, it is a must view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This fits in well with the characteristics of a servant leader<\/a>, as well as a self organizing team. There has to be a vision for the team, there has to be growth and independence for the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Another aspect is the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory<\/a>, which talks about the Hygiene factors<\/span> and Motivating factors<\/span>. Hygiene factors are salary, benefits, work place environment, etc., which if absent causes dis-satisfaction, but if present may not lead to motivation. Motivating factors are challenging work, recognition, doing meaningful work, etc. Bear in mind that these two factors are independent of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The above was based on preceded by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs<\/a>, which talks about basic needs and how the needs change as one grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The video assimilates all of these into one interesting and crisp artifact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    With the above information, one gets pretty clear picture on the possible approach to motivate the team. It may look difficult, but with focus, driven by awareness of the need for motivated teams, one can be successful at this. There are some simple instruments, that can help track this, more on that later.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Motivating teams","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"motivating-teams","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:48:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3709","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3458,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-08-06 13:51:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-08-06 08:21:00","post_content":"\n

    This is from a true real world scenario. Imagine that you are doing very well in your organization. Everybody has a healthy regard for you. One fine morning in your one on one with your manager, he says \"I hope there will always be someone looking out for you with a job...\". What goes on in your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The dialog begins...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    After the usual morning salutations, my manager, WS, hands me an envelope. In my characteristic style, I thank him but do not open it. He goads me to open it. As I read it, he congratulates me. Well I have been promoted to the highest level in the organization - a position on the board. I was pleased to hear that. For a brief moment my heart went aflutter - how I wish my dad had lived to see this day! Then a brief moment of pride and joy. I am back to my usual composed self thereafter. WS then hands me another envelope. I just keep it. WS does not goad me this time. He just says I hope you will like what you see in that. (Later when I go back to my desk and open it - I notice it contained a letter with options and another with my  revised salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    WS says \"With this Srini, your responsibilities and commitments further increase. You along with RM and DP need to make this place successful.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The dialog ends ...<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    As I am above to leave, WS says \"Srini, I just have one more thing to say. I hope there will always be someone out there in the market looking out for you with a job.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I am normally not surprised by what people say, but I am perplexed that WS after moving me to the board, now wishes that I can get another job! I am lost for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    WS says \"Srini, let me tell you why.\" My anxiety level is very high and I want to know what he really wants me to do. \"Srini, as long as someone is there in the market willing to give you a job, I have a risk. You can walk away in 30 days. Now imagine a day, should nobody look for you. I have the biggest risk - I am saddled with a heavy useless potato. I prefer the former risk to the latter.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Having understood, I thanked him and stepped out, promising to myself I will do my very best to stay worthy of what I am paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The 2% Masala Impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    We all speak to our managers on tons of things - good, bad and ugly. But when you continue to recollect it through your working career and you share it with people who have worked with you, you know that it was a message truly worth internalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Two key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. The timing of when you communicate something matters a lot. Do you think I would have been very receptive if I had heard this on any ordinary day, or when the organization was unable to improve my job content or earnings. I would have been receptive differently - walked away straight to a head hunter to look out for a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n

    2. The real message - be careful that you are not over valued way beyond the market.<\/strong>  [How to handle over valued situation - is another topic for another day... I have had quite a few people asking my suggestion in the past several years.] There are a wide range of reasons why that can happen to you in your career, if you are not careful. It can look great initially with a higher title, higher pay, higher role - but if the true usage is well below market you are at a risk because you have no way to grow or go out easily. You are trapped inside! That can damage you in the long run. I am hearing more of these dead-end alleys with the industry not growing at that scorching pace causing early obsolescence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    I have actually seen some very senior people join a large organization with fancy title and a big pay check. But soon the job they do is far less valuable than they did in the prior job. They put up with it and continue - because the outside world sees them as having arrived. It hurt their ego big time to say the real content of their job is bad. So the organization has cleverly used that vulnerability to the hilt. I am not advocating this - but I have seen this in close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I have repeated this story at various points to my employees, because I truly believed in the message WS left me with. It\u2019s ideal to be paid and titled right. it's a much simpler life even if you are a little underpaid, have an understated title - because you are never at the mercy of the prevailing situation. You will never have sleepless nights when the organization churns or changes itself. You are always market-valuable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As always feel free to comment, provide your inputs, or any such experience you have had.<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala: When my manager said \"I hope there's someone to give you a job\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-when-my-manager-said-i-hope-theres-someone-to-give-you-a-job-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:03:41","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3458","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"1","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3448,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-30 06:02:17","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-30 00:32:17","post_content":"\n

    Over the weekend I was out at a food court to meet a former colleague of mine. She had got along a couple of her young friends as well. As we were conversing, the young lady, who had come along with my friend  said \"When I discuss with my manager what I have to do - the constant response is you need to increase your visibility.\" She added \"I have seen people around me, who do much less than what I do, but seem to make a lot of hue and cry, which I can't understand.\" I could see she was pretty much annoyed that her good work did not get noticed, but some ordinary piece of work with a trumpet seems to have reached the right ears. I empathized with her and shared the story of \"The 2% Masala Impact\" with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The story begins<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    Over the years I have learnt from a lot of people, and events. As I looked back \u2013 I noticed that the big differentiator (and at times frustrating) has been the 2% masala impact. Before I share those stories, I thought I would provide the story of 2% masala first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I wanted to get quality veg pulao that was really good for my health. I went to two restaurants and ordered a veg pulao in both the places. After I had it, like most people, I drew a comparison between the two. Before I talk of my result, I want to give you all the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    First, let\u2019s get into the kitchen and see what happened in both the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    A typical veg pulao is made of 70% rice, 28% vegetables. (If you think the veggie content is high \u2013 ask my children, they bemoan that my wife ensures that we have lots of veggies in everything!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Restaurant A cooked using of the best grade of basmati rice (9\/10); used freshly grown organic vegetables (8\/10); used the masala reasonably well (7\/10). Restaurant B cooked using of a good variant of basmati rice (7\/10); used freshly grown vegetables too (6\/10); and made a better use of the masala (9\/10). So what happened after that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I applied my analytical brain and scored both of them. Here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Voila! As expected Restaurant A\u2019s veg pulao is nearly 25% better than Restaurant B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So logic follows that  Restaurant A has provided me with better food than Restaurant B. But my tongue, the ultimate decider, feels Restaurant B is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Well, the way the chef handled the 2% masala in Restaurant B (9\/10) was better than Restaurant A (6\/ 10).  So the 2% masala made such a huge impact \u2013 when ideally Restaurant A\u2019s pulao was good for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If only Restaurant A did a 2 point improvement with 2% masala \u2013 just imagine what an outstanding product it would be! Would it not be truly be the best pulao in content and taste!! The scores of Pulao A and Pulao B would be now 8.94 (8.80 + 0.14) and 6.76. Imagine how much more effort would Restaurant B have to put in to match Restaurant A \u2013 nearly 25% more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So the true value of the majority 98% (which is the primary purpose of eating it), is decided by that tiny little 2% masala!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Let's change the setting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    Now let\u2019s take this to our workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    There were times I took a complex piece of work, did a very good job, and just about made the story. Yet someone else who took the lighter work and just did their job \u2018but\u2019 made a very good presentation was more appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Do you think that when I did better in 98% of the (real) stuff, the stupid 2% presentation ruined it? Do you think I felt that people cared more for how I presented than what I did (the real stuff)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In fact whenever I went attend a training (especially the softer aspect ones) I would feel most of the session worthless, until I suddenly found that little nugget of wisdom I could carry home back with me. So 15 \u2013 30 minutes of a 3 day program decided how useful it was to me. But the challenge was that I did not know when that 15 \u2013 30 minutes would come over the 3 days. So I had to sit through intently and patiently listening to all the 3 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Or just look at the story of the young lady I met last weekend? How much did her disdain for doing the 2% trumpet impact her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What do you think? Ponder over it. Do you have such stories to share? Do you feel this paradigm is unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So what do you think 5% masala could do? Well that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As I conclude<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    If you see, \"the 2%\" is the door-keeper, it's important to look outside in. The first thing that people notice is the outer layer. Yes, the outer layer is only 2% of  you, but it has already got an out sized ability -  The ability to make the first impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In today's world, when most organizations are constantly running their lives on a quarter to quarter basis, not many people have the patience to discover your true value. So do not ignore the 2% door-keeper to your future (when your 98% is brilliant!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If the 2% is the core of you that makes the out sized impact, continue to polish and nurture that 2% so that it always continues to shine out and dazzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Either way - you cannot ignore the 2% masala impact!<\/p>\n","post_title":"The 2% Masala Impact","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"the-2-masala-impact","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3448","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3704,"post_author":"26","post_date":"2015-07-10 16:45:29","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-10 11:15:29","post_content":"\n

    Most of us are familiar with the Basic Communication Model - with sender, channel and receiver. We all understand that the responsibility for effective communication rests with both parties, with a slight onus on the sender. What I have experienced is that by including an element, that focuses on the outcome, enhances the effectiveness of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This got highlighted in a serendipitous event for us. We were helping Delivery Managers with competency development in a Automotive client's organization, it included a module on Communication. We had a written test as part of the program and I had created the question for it, and has evaluated the answers. The test had questions from other areas like Stakeholders, Customer satisfaction and corresponding questions were set by my colleagues. One of them was tabulating the marks and had an interesting observation on my evaluation \u2013 that I have either given marks in 75-80% range or 45-50% range, and asked why is it so? I had not noticed this and I reviewed the answer scripts briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Here's is what I found: The Communication question was a project situation with challenges in dealing and getting responses from the project stakeholders. There was a template suggested for the answer, that had the standard columns like what, who, frequency and a column for desired outcome\/ result, the last column is typically not included in the templates. Communication model talks about acknowledgment and feedback, but they are not represented in templates for Project Communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"CommPlan\"
    Good Communication Plan focuses on Expected Outcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Interestingly, few had jumped into arriving at a solution without even documenting the \u201cdesired outcome\u201d and a few had included this. Invariably, the answers of those who had included this column were significantly better than those who had not. I also noticed that many of them had tweaked their solutions after including this column at the end, it was hand written test. There were a few, who got it right otherwise too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    We shared this observation with the class and from then on, this is one of my favorite stories that I share when training on project\/work communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Often managers creating a report for stakeholders, assume that their responsibility ends with that, get frustrated when they do not get responses or unable to resolve the issues. They think of creating the report as a chore, and often mentally exhausted. Major shift happens, if they focus on getting responses and resolving issues as the end goal and treat the report as just a means. Those who get this never complain of the boring process of creating reports, as report for them is a step in getting an issue resolved or a problem solved. Most managers pride themselves on their ability to solve problems and issues and this small tweak helps them go raring at it. All this by just focusing on the end\/outcome.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Communicating with the End in Mind","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"communicating-with-the-end-in-mind","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:49:02","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3704","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":3399,"post_author":"25","post_date":"2015-07-07 10:32:00","post_date_gmt":"2015-07-07 05:02:00","post_content":"\n

    I began life as a child, and still continue to behave like one. I started my working years as an individual contributor, and still continue to be one. In addition to this in my wonderful journey of life and work I have also become a parent and a team manager. What\u2019s more interesting as I look at life \u2013 the period when I shifted gears to become a parent and a team manager were nearly in the same time frame of my life. Several years later, I have contemplated how I have handled these two shifts. The more I looked at it, the more I found a lot to learn in life. I am never a believer that any paradigm is absolutely right. However, I also firmly believe that when we keep our mind wide open, we always have something to learn from one context and apply it in another, to be even better. So the same is true for what I pen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I am sure many of you have been through this journey, or have seen others in this journey. Once you read this, I would like to listen to your perspective. I am fine between complete agreement to total disagreement with what I have penned. Even more interestingly, if you have anything orthogonal to what is here, that will be of value to listen and learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Parenting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When my daughter was about ten months old, like all parents I looked forward to my daughter starting to walk. Every little attempt was cheered. When she attempted to move and fell, the fall only made me feel more resolute \u2013 that she\u2019s getting closer to walking. So many umpteen attempts to stand and move, I had the patience and willingness to see her joy in doing that. She may have hardly moved a feet or two, I felt it was a cause to cheer her success. So she learnt to start walking. Then over the passing weeks, she soon learnt to improve from the gingerly steps to walking without holding the wall or the railings. Her quality of walk and the time she could walk without support started to increase. Months later she was on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    During this journey when she fell very many times. Sometimes I would be tempted to think that I should support her more, so that she would not fall. After all I was not a sadist to see a kid fall, much less mine! But this brief thought would quickly vanish, stating that she will learn from it and soon walk. So the only time when support would come would be if she got dangerously close to the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Years later, when my son was born this story would repeat all over again. My son\u2019s progress was a little slower in this process. He eventually made it too. In the meanwhile I noticed that my son\u2019s ability to count was very good. So I would encourage and see with joy that he did it well repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Now in this process, there were brief moments when I would compare the progress of my son with my daughter. But within moments the thoughts would be replaced with what my daughter was quick and good at, what my son was quick and good at. So there was no real comparison, but instead a willingness to support them with their pace of growth. There was an attempt to see them maximize their potential (e.g. my son\u2019s love for arithmetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Today they have grown up into two wonderful children \u2013 similar, yet different in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As the project started would assemble the team and get cracking with the objective of completing it on schedule, under budget with the right quality. Even in the best of the defined projects soon I would find that the requirements would be subject to change. The team with all its skill, was not a perfect match to the needs. Just when I thought this was a stable technology, would run into issues that were never foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Soon the pressure of time, meeting the week\u2019s schedule would creep in. I would quickly look at people who can do things by themselves, assign them \u201dthe tasks\u201d  that I deemed important. Then with the others, I would now push them hard, give them the \u201cother\u201d tasks. I would exactly let them know what\u2019s to be done. They would do it. If they fell into the rut some would get lost, others would walk up to me to help them solve. It was a relief for me. They came with the problem, and with my years of experience would help solve it. Off they went with it and voila! The program would start working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Soon the next week would begin, and the pressure of the week\u2019s delivery would creep in. So my magic formula of managing the time pressure would repeat. The team was by and large happy \u2013 as we were managing the pressure of delivering on time. The \u201cprogressive\u201d team members were independent \u2013 they were happy to take the challenging part of the work. The \u201cother\u201d team members were also fine, as they were learning from my experiences and were not getting stuck with their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Soon, there were unforeseen changes from the customer in the project. Now there was a real risk that we may not meet the schedule or budgets. I have been very successful all through my working life. I was on fast track. I had now moved up quickly. So, I was not going to fail, was I? Soon this thought would keep coming to me on and off. I was pushing the team hard, whipping them, making it clear that failure was not an option. After all who would want to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Months later the project was delivered. There were some hidden quality issues. We could not review all the code, but then we managed to get the system accepted. Everyone was happy, it appeared. The management felt I did it again with my team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When I introspected, I realized that I handled the pressure of time well. A good part of the team felt relieved that they did not fail. So my theory of using the pressure of failure seem to work. Quality was reasonably there. Well the code reviews did not happen because the customer kept changing the needs \u2013 so he had to pay some price for it, isn\u2019t it. As far as my teams learning was concerned \u2013 yes this was a tough project, they will have future occasions to learn to solve the problems themselves. For now they have learnt to run to the leader when then had a problem to solve \u2013 without wasting time. The management was happy as the schedule and budgets were managed well. After all the undiscovered issues, could be future source of revenue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Today, when I look back, many of them have repeated this formula\u2026 solve the problems for your team. Ensure that fear of failure will push people to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The comparison \u2013 Parenting and Team Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    On both counts I have been successful. Definitely on the face of it, there seems to be no issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Let\u2019s look at what I did as a parent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - I was focussed on the purpose and the big picture  (Even when my son took longer I did not get the pressure of time to make me get it done)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - I was happy that my children learnt how to walk, by themselves (in spite of the innumerable times they fell in the process)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - I applauded and  as the quality of walk improved, so my children learnt the right way to walk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - I celebrated their success (did not focus on their failure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Today I am reasonably sure that my children have learnt to do things on their own independently. I don\u2019t feel any loss of power when they do things on their own. On the contrary I am happy about it. They have learnt how to learn by themselves. They know what\u2019s good. So the fear of failure or time pressure does not hit them. They have learnt to use their potential to the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Let\u2019s look at what I did as a team manager:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - I was happy that my team would come back to me when they had a problem. This minimized the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - I made sure the team understood that failing was not an option (fear of failure). I ensured that not failing in challenging projects was the motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - I made sure that the team did what I wanted\u2026 so there was no urge to think out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - I made sure the customer got it on time, albeit a little lower quality (the price he had to pay for the constant flux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Today I am reasonably certain that some of my team members have continued with this formula. So the manager continues to be powerful, as the team comes back to him\/her to solve the problems. They always use fear of failure, as the bogeyman to pressure. They expect quality will give way due to changes. They are good at what they do, they fear every change. They have not been prepared for the constant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Did I do well as a manager? Was the organization aiding and abetting me in what I did? Did the employees truly learn? Are we using their potential to the fullest? Is fear the best motivator? Are we getting too focussed on the \u201cnow and here\u201d approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The lessons from parenting I would carry into managing a team (both the manager and the organization):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    -  Coach the team to be a self-learning team. When the future is unknown, solving their problem today, will not help prepare them for tomorrow\u2019s unknown needs and problems. It will make them (and the organization) self sustaining. I allowed my child to learn to walk. It fell down many a time. Did not prevent that from happening. So my child eventually learned not just to walk, but also got to know how it can learn something new on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - Build the belief that quality is in-built. It\u2019s not about compromising, when we can. This will ensure that teams can work on newer thing, that add value. Initially my child would hold the wall. Persisting with encouragement, the child believed that it can walk away from the wall \u2013 not just one or two steps but forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - Allow the team to own the process. When done that way, you don\u2019t have to follow through. Otherwise, we create a dependency on us when faced with the slightest of the issues. It can be a little slow in the beginning. Once we get past that early stage \u2013 we have a team (and an organization) that owns the need. So the sense of responsibility to make it happen is built into them. When my child fell many a time, I did not push it make it the next day. My child wanted to do it, and so despite the many falls, it made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - I know that all of us are afraid of something. So we believe the fear of failure will propel the team to do it. It may appear so in the short run. However the sheer amount of mental fatigue that it creates would result in less energy towards the purpose we work. So it can be self-defeating. When there\u2019s no fear, learning becomes easier and joyous. Did I not notice that with my child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    - Celebrate genuine effort and success. This helps the adrenalin to flow in. It keeps us going longer even when faced with uncertainty. When my child saw that I really liked what it did, it naturally continued. Guess what could have happened with my child if I shown my anger, at not being able to learn to walk quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Today as team manager we live on a week by week basis. As an organization we live on a quarter by quarter basis. If we went about doing the important things right (learning and quality), the urgent things (time and fear of failure) would take care of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I am eager to listen to your perspectives, your stories.<\/p>\n","post_title":"A study in contrast - Parenting and Managing a team","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"a-study-in-contrast-parenting-and-managing-a-team","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 14:04:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/blogs\/?p=3399","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":9},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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